National nature reserve (United Kingdom) in the context of "Sutton Park, West Midlands"

The Nature Conservancy was a British government agency established in 1949 under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, drafted in part by Max Nicholson. It was a research council for natural sciences and 'biological service'. This provided legal protection of national nature reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The first Director General was Captain Cyril Diver. In 1952 Max Nicholson took over as Director General and served until 1966. During this time Nature Conservancy developed, despite opposition from vested interests, as a research and management body which promoted ecology as having broad relevance and application to land use decision-making and management. This included helping to establish the Monks Wood Experimental Station, which was perhaps the first to examine the effect of pesticides on the environment.

Snowdon (/ˈsnoʊdən/), or Yr Wyddfa (Welsh: [ər ˈʊɨ̞̯ðva] ), is a mountain in Snowdonia in North Wales. It has an elevation of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level, which makes it both the highest mountain in Wales and the highest in the British Isles south of the Scottish Highlands. Snowdon is designated a national nature reserve for its rare flora and fauna, and is located within Snowdonia National Park.

The rocks that form Snowdon were produced by volcanoes in the Ordovician period, and the massif has been extensively sculpted by glaciation, forming the pyramidal peak of Snowdon and the arêtes of Crib Goch and Y Lliwedd. It is part of the larger Snowdon range, which includes Garnedd Ugain, Yr Aran, and Moel Eilio. There are several lakes on the mountain, the largest of which is Llyn Lydaw (110 acres (45 ha)), located on the eastern flank at 1,430 ft (440 m).

Grassholm (Welsh: Gwales or Ynys Gwales) or Grassholm Island is a small uninhabited island situated 13 kilometres (8 mi) off the southwestern Pembrokeshire coast in Wales, lying west of Skomer, in the community of Marloes and St Brides. It is the westernmost point in Wales other than the isolated rocks on which the Smalls Lighthouse stands. Grassholm is known for its huge colony of northern gannets; the island has been owned since 1947 by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and is one of its oldest reserves. It reaches 42 metres (138 ft).

Grassholm National Nature Reserve is the third most important site for gannets in the world, after two sites in Scotland: St Kilda and Bass Rock. It serves as a breeding site for 39,000 pairs of the birds, and supports around 10 per cent of the world population. The turbulent sea around Grassholm is a good feeding area for porpoises and bottlenose dolphins.

Sherwood Forest consists of the remnants of an ancient Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire, in the East Midlands region of England. It is associated with the legend of Robin Hood. The forest was proclaimed by William the Conqueror and mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086. The reserve has the highest concentration of ancient trees in Europe.

Today, Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve encompasses 424.75 hectares (1,049.6 acres), surrounding the village of Edwinstowe and the site of Thoresby Hall. The reserve contains more than a thousand ancient oaks which are known to be more than 500 years old, with the Major Oak being twice that age. Sherwood Forest is within an area which used to be called "Birch Lund", which is Viking in origin, now known as Birklands. The oak trees from Sherwood Forest were used to build the roof of St Paul's Cathedral in London and 1st Viscount Nelson's naval fleet.

A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man. SSSI/ASSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in the United Kingdom are based upon them, including national nature reserves, Ramsar sites, Special Protection Areas, and Special Areas of Conservation. The acronym "SSSI" is often pronounced "triple-S I".

Gibraltar Point is a headland on the coast of Lincolnshire, England, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south of Skegness, where the North Sea coast turns southwest towards Boston and enters The Wash. The point is at the southernmost point of a national nature reserve covering an area of about 4.3 km (1.7 sq mi) .

The reserve is owned by Lincolnshire County Council and East Lindsey District Council and is administered by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. The reserve comprises two parallel ridges of sand dunes—the "east dunes" and the "west dunes"—separated by about half a kilometre (550 yards) of salt marsh; and an area on the seaward side with further salt marsh and sand, shingle and muddy beaches. The reserve extends for a distance of about 5 km (3 mi) along the coast, from the southern end of Skegness to the northern corner of The Wash . A golf course occupies much of the west dunes (the inland side) at the Skegness end of the area. Gibraltar Point is an area of coastal deposition—at the end of the 18th century the west dunes were by the shore, but they are now a kilometre inland.

The Giant's Causeway (Irish: Clochán an Aifir or Clochán na bhFomhórach) is an area of approximately 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption, part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province active in the region during the Paleogene period. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills.

It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 and a national nature reserve by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland in 1987. In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Giant's Causeway was named the fourth-greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom.

Kinder Scout is a moorland plateau and National Nature Reserve in the Dark Peak of the Derbyshire Peak District in England. Part of the moor, at 636 metres (2,087 ft) above sea level, is the highest point in the Peak District, in Derbyshire and the East Midlands.