Grangelands and Pulpit Hill

Pulpit Hill is a National Trust site,{{cite web|url=http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/chilterns-countryside/facilities-and-access/|title=Chilterns Countryside|publisher=National Trust|access-date= 10 January 2015}} and Grangelands was formerly owned by Buckinghamshire County Council and was transferred to the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust in 2014.{{cite web|url=https://democracy.buckscc.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=3695|title=Green Spaces- Divestment of land at Grangelands, Great Kimble & Rifle Range - Great Kimble|publisher=Buckinghamshire County Council |date=4 November 2014}}{{cite web|url=http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/community_wildlife_officer_bucks_jd-_apr14.pdf|title=COMMUNITY WILDLIFE OFFICER (BUCKS)|publisher=Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust|access-date=28 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929215248/http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/community_wildlife_officer_bucks_jd-_apr14.pdf|archive-date=29 September 2015|url-status=dead}}

The site has grassland and scrub, which support interesting breeding birds and invertebrates, such as glow-worms and marbled white and chalkhill blue butterflies. There are areas of mature beech woodland, with a sparse shrub layer of holly and elder, and a ground layer of wood sorrel, woodruff, broad helleborine and tufted hairgrass. Further down the slope there is mixed woodland of recent origin where the beech trees are associated with a variety of other trees and shrubs including yew, ash, whitebeam and wild cherry, blackthorn, hawthorn and purging buckthorn. Several orchids can be found here including white helleborine, narrow-lipped helleborine, yellow bird's-nest orchid and bird's-nest orchid.

There are several areas of scrubland, and several types of grassland, each with its characteristic flora of downland plants. These include cowslip, field scabious, greater and lesser knapweeds, marjoram, common St John's wort and basil, as well as the common spotted orchid, the bee orchid, the pyramidal orchid and the fragrant orchid.

There is a small but well-preserved multivallate hill fort on the summit of Pulpit Hill, which dates to the late Bronze Age and Iron Age. It is a scheduled monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.{{NHLE|num=1013937|desc=Small multivallate hillfort on Pulpit Hill|access-date= 10 January 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=4540/|title=Pulpit Hill|publisher=The Megalithic Portal|access-date= 10 January 2015}} English Heritage (now Historic England) carried out an archaeological survey and investigation of the prehistoric hillfort in November 2000.{{Cite web|url=https://research.historicengland.org.uk/Report.aspx?i=15490&ru=%2fResults.aspx%3fp%3d1%26n%3d10%26tsk%3dpulpit%2520hill%26ns%3d1|title=Pulpit Hill, Great and Little Kimble, Buckinghamshire. Iron Age Hillfort. Survey Report. Research Report number: 127/2001|last=Barker|first=Louise|website=Historic England}}

The site is always open but accessibility is difficult for anyone who is not able bodied, due to steep slopes and soft ground.{{cite web|url=http://www.chilternsaonb.org/ccbmaps/673/137/grangelands-and-pulpit-hill.html|title=Grangelands and Pulpit Hill|publisher=Chilterns Conservation Board|access-date= 10 January 2015}}

• List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Buckinghamshire

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{{SSSIs Buckinghamshire }}

{{Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust}}

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Category:Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Buckinghamshire

Category:Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust