Six miles north of High Wycombe, Yoesden has changed little since medieval times. Descending from ‘beech hanger’ woods, its sun-soaked chalk grassland provides a haven for less common flora and fauna.

In late June, it’s a pink and purple picture with chalk fragrant, pyramidal and common spotted orchids. By August, blue is the colour with devil’s bit scabious, nettle-leaved bellflower and lots of Chiltern gentian attracting butterflies – keep an eye out for the azure Adonis blues and the powdery chalk hill blues as well as the common blue and small blue varieties. Open daily, and free to visit.

Situated in the Radnage valley, Yoesden is a quintessential site of the traditional Chiltern landscape. A swathe of untouched chalk grassland is packed with rare butterflies and wild flowers and is topped by a ‘hanger’ woodland of beech, yew and whitebeam trees on the edge of a steeply sided valley. The woodland is home to great spotted woodpeckers, buzzards, red kites and various woodland specialist plants, while the grassland displays a glorious variety of colours throughout spring and summer with the seasonal blooming of orchids, bird’s-foot trefoil, vetch, knapweed and Chiltern gentians.

Parking spaces can be found in Bledlow Ridge on Chinnor Road, close to The Boot pub. Alternatively, Yoesden Nature Reserve is a 1.5 mile walk (approximately) from the Ridgeway National Trail.