Grassland Plant Identification at Kingcombe Meadows (Dorset) NEW FOR 2026

About this event

A 2-day course giving participants;

· the skills and confidence to identify the key grasses and flowers of several different grassland communities.

· learning the key features for UKHAB survey and BNG condition assessments.

· a chance to do sampling and share ideas with colleagues.

Grasslands support a wide range of different plant communities and at Kingcombe there are plenty of examples, from traditional meadows and acidic mires to rush-filled pastures and dry, calcareous grassland. All of these support a range of key plant species, many of which are at their peak in June. Kingcombe boasts an impressive list of species, making this nature reserve an excellent place to learn plants.

This course will teach easy ways to identify a combination of typical and common species in each of these habitats, including numerous grasses, sedges and rushes, as well as some of the more unusual plants. We will also look at different survey techniques, with a chance to carry these out with other attendees, both to consolidate knowledge of the species and teach recording methods.

Please be aware that there will be some short but steep inclines.

An evening meal served on site at Kingcombe at the end of Day 1 is included in the price of the ticket.

All proceeds from the course will go to supporting our endangered species conservation work.

About the tutor

Leif Bersweden is an experienced botanical tutor with a relaxed approach to teaching plants.

He is a writer, botanist and nature communicator with a face-down, bottom-up approach to watching wildlife. Leif grew up in rural Wiltshire where he taught himself how to identify the local flora and has been championing our wild plants and the joy they bring ever since. He is the author of The Orchid Hunter and Where the Wildflowers Grow.

Directions

Meet in the Swallow Barn at the Kingcombe Visitor Centre. Free parking is available in the additional car park at the top of the visitor centre for the duration of the course. Please avoid parking in the main car park to allow for visitors to the centre. Each day will run from 10am to 4pm and details of the itinerary will be supplied to attendees closer to the time.

Google maps – click here for Swallow Barn and here for free parking.

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Accommodation

Should you wish to attend this course, we strongly encourage you to book a space to stay in the onsite accommodation, The Cowshed. This beautiful old building has been recently renovated and offers 9 comfortable rooms, available on a first-come-first-served basis. Each room has a private bathroom and use of a large communal kitchen/dining room and lounge. Rooms are charged at £65 per room per night, with all proceeds going to the Dorset Wildlife Trust. Leif will run a bird watching and bat walk around the reserve in the evening and we’ll set a moth trap overnight.

Please email a2luZ2NvbWJlIHwgZG9yc2V0d2lsZGxpZmV0cnVzdCAhIG9yZyAhIHVr or call 01300 320684 once you’ve purchased your course ticket to book a space, specifying whether you’d like to stay one night or two. For more information on The Cowshed, please click here.

Food

We will be eating lunch at the centre each day. You’ll have the opportunity to purchase something from the onsite café (The Kitchen @ Kingcombe) or alternatively please bring a packed lunch.

The price of the ticket includes dinner on site at the end of Day 1 (Thursday 11th June). This will be a set menu 2-course meal (traybake/lasagne, followed by a pudding) and soft drink, served at 6:30pm at The Kitchen @ Kingcombe. Any extra drinks will be at your own cost. We will ask about general dietary requirements in the booking process, but if you have any other specific requirements then please get in touch with us well in advance.

For those staying overnight in The Cowshed, please bring something for breakfast (there are kitchen facilities, including a fridge). Tea and coffee will be provided.

There won’t be a meal provided on Wednesday 10th June, but the kitchen in The Cowshed is well-equipped, so you will be able to self-cater if you decide to stay the night before as well.

If for any reason you’re unable to eat with us on Thursday 11th, please let Leif know (contact details will be provided nearer the time).

Course schedule

Day 1

Meet for registration and refreshment in the Swallow Barn from 9:30am onwards, ready for a 10am start. The morning session will entail walking a short way along the valley into a series of damp meadows. At lunchtime we’ll return to the picnic tables outside the visitor centre to eat and use the facilities, before heading back out for the afternoon session. The teaching focus will be on common plants in neutral meadows to acidic mires with varying degrees of dampness.

Optional bird watching and bat walk in the evening, starting at 8:30pm from the Swallow Barn.

Day 2

Optional early session to look at moths caught in an overnight moth trap. For those interested, meet outside the Swallow Barn at 7am.

Meet for refreshment in the Swallow Barn from 9:30am onwards, ready for a 10am start. We’ll walk for half a mile up an uneven, stony track (about 15-20 minutes) where we’ll spend the morning focusing on the plants of chalk grassland before walking back to the visitor’s centre for lunch. During the afternoon we’ll work on consolidating the species we’ve looked at, with opportunities to do quadrat sampling and walk over surveys before walking back to the visitor’s centre for a 4pm finish. Please be aware that there will be some short but steep inclines.

What to bring

· Notebook/clipboard

· Hand lens

· Footwear appropriate for both wet and dry ground and for walking on unstable surfaces

· Packed lunch

· Water

· Sunblock/sun hat/waterproofs

The recommended text for the grasses part of the course is ‘A Field Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes’ by Dominic Price, which is available to purchase in advance here should you want a copy. Having a wildflower identification guide isn’t required to attend this course, but any general flower guide should suffice if you wish to bring one.

Please inform us of any relevant medical requirements/conditions we should be aware of prior to the course.

Adverse weather

This is an outdoor run course on an exposed site, and as such we request that participants bring suitable clothing including sunhats, sunblock, and full waterproofs & fleeces. As the climate breaks down, we do occasionally have severe weather where either it is very difficult to take notes due to prolonged heavy rain, or temperatures have reached a point where long exposure can be detrimental to health.

In these instances, we will run a condensed version of the course, where we aim to see all the species before lunch but have less time to take notes on them. We will then give attendees free access to the corresponding online course for 24 hours, which means you can take notes and look at the species in more detail in the comfort of your home. We have built a corresponding online catalogue of courses for this purpose, and we therefore feel we can offer the same training experience while looking after attendees’ welfare in the field.

Therefore if you look at the forecast before the course and start panicking - don’t worry, we’ve got you!

Course certificate

This course can be used as part of your Continuing Professional Development (CPD). We invite attendees to download their own certificate and complete the numbers of hours spent on the course, as we are aware some attendees spend more time reading up about courses before the day, and writing their notes up and sitting the online course tests afterwards. The hours on your certificate should accurately reflect this time.

Feedback

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