Fylde Sand Dunes

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Fylde Sand Dunes

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The home of the Fylde Sand Dunes Project. Sand dunes are also popular for informal recreation and hence indirectly generate revenue for the local economy.
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St Annes Sand Dunes: the main areas of interest are the coastal habitats from Squire's Gate in the north (at the northern limit of the Fylde Council boundary), continuing southwards and eastwards around the coast to the western edge of Lytham Green; most of which is owned by Fylde or Blackpool Council. The main aims for management of the Fylde Sand Dunes are to:

• enhance the nature conservation interest of the coastal habitats,
• improve the efficiency of the dunes and saltmarsh as soft sea-defence (with associated cost savings in maintenance of hard sea-defences) and
• enhance public appreciation and enjoyment of the dunes. Management works to achieve these aims will include enabling natural seaward accretion of
the dunes by removing the current causes of man-induced erosion (both to increase the area of wildlife habitat and to improve the efficiency of flood defence), together with grassland and scrub management works to enhance the nature conservation value of the existing dunes. The Dunes are also extremely important because of their flood-defence properties; both by providing a barrier to inundation and by releasing sand during storm conditions to reduce wave action. This natural coastal defence is hugely cost-effective compared to the expenses incurred in maintaining the alternative sea-walls and other hard coastal defences, and often far more efficient. While much depleted, the remnant dunes in Fylde Borough still form the most significant part of the Borough's coastal defence.

19/10/2026

💪 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗿 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘀 💪

These holes are dug by dogs and can become a trip hazard, we periodically fill the holes back in to make it safer for people walking in the area. With the help of Fylde Council operational staff, sand built up on the sea wall in St Annes was placed in the area for the volunteers and ranger team to use.

A polite reminder to dog walkers in the area, please don't allow your dogs to dig holes on the sand dunes to help protect both people and wildlife, thank you!

Lancashire Wildlife Trust Fylde Ranger Service Blackpool Council

19/10/2026

🎃🦀 𝓦𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓛𝓾𝓻𝓴𝓼 𝓑𝓮𝓷𝓮𝓪𝓽𝓱? 𝓐 𝓢𝓹𝓸𝓸𝓴𝔂 𝓜𝓾𝓭 𝓓𝓲𝓹𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓐𝓭𝓿𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮!👻

Something spooky is stirring beneath the mud this October half-term... but do you dare to discover what lurks beneath? 🕷️

Join the Fylde Sand Dunes Project on St Anne's Beach for a spook-tacular 𝗺𝘂𝗱 𝗱𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 as we uncover the weird and wonderful creatures hiding in the muddy creeks of the Ribble Estuary!

🦀 From creepy crawly crabs and wriggling worms to ghostly shrimps and mysterious shellfish, there's a whole hidden world waiting to be discovered!

Grab a net, become a muddy monster hunter and see what fascinating creatures you can find! Our friendly team will be on hand to help you identify your discoveries and learn all about the amazing wildlife living right beneath our feet.

📅 Monday 26ᵗʰ October 2026
⏰ Time: 2:00pm - 3:30pm
📍 Location: St Anne's Beach & Saltmarsh
🥾 What to bring: Wellies, warm waterproof clothing and a sense of adventure!

🎟️ FREE EVENT – 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗔𝗟!

Spaces are limited, so make sure you book your place before they disappear! 👻

👉 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: www.lancswt.org.uk/events/2026-10-26-what-lurks-beneath-spooky-mud-dipping-adventure 🔗👈

or

👉 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-lurks-beneath-a-spooky-mud-dipping-adventure-tickets-2003593355662 🔗👈

16/10/2026

🪿 𝗔 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗙𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲 🪿

One of those perfectly named birds, a goose with pink feet.

Every winter these birds flock to the UK in huge numbers from North of the Arctic circle. They head to the UK for our warmer weather (compared to their breeding sites), rest, feed up and then head back North in the spring to breed.

They feed on the Ribble estuary during the day and head inland to the mosses and agricultural fields to roost over night. A super spot to see them local to St Annes and Lytham is along Lytham St Annes way, and also Balham road.

Did you know? The Ribble estuary is the third most important wetland site in the UK, in the winter it is home to around 250,000 birds including the pink footed goose.

Lancashire Wildlife Trust Fylde Council Blackpool Council Environment Agency

13/10/2026

🦎 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 🦎

We have exceeded our sand lizard sighting records from last year and even better news have recorded more hatchlings than last year!

Hatchlings are extremely hard to find being much smaller than adults and highly camouflaged. We also suspect that due to the prolonged warm, dry summer we may have had two broods as we saw some hatchlings earlier in the season. The two pictured were spotted by Ranger Andy last week.

The adults will already be hibernating and these hatchlings will be stocking up ready to go into hibernation within the next week or so as temperatures start to drop.

Total sightings tally at 142 records with 139 separate individuals, last year we spotted 106 so this is a really positive upwards trajectory.

Lancashire Wildlife Trust Fylde Council Blackpool Council Environment Agency

12/10/2026

🌾💪 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘀 💪🌾

The marram grass was bought last year and staff and volunteers based at Ashton gardens have been growing them on into much larger plants for us.

Around 400 plants were planted in total, and we focussed our planting around this years Christmas trees. The marram will help keep the built up sand in place when the roots start to mat together.

Marram is a key dune building grass that has deep roots, loves being buried by sand and is drought tolerant, so perfectly adapted to a sand dune environment.

Lancashire Wildlife Trust Fylde Council Blackpool Council Environment Agency

05/10/2026

💪 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗽 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗱 𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘄𝘀 💪

We have 11 species of orchids across the dune system and one of our best spots is just south of Thursby nursing home. This area becomes very damp over winter and sometimes even floods, known as a dune slack, which makes in an ideal area for a lot of orchids to grow such as marsh helleborine and both northern and southern marsh orchids. The higher ridges in the area are drier and this is where we find the endemic dune helleborine and pyramidal orchids.

As part of a wildflower meadow, these orchid meadows have to be cut each year and the cuttings raked off and taken away. We usually do this later than the meadows on the reserve as orchids take longer to go to seed than other wildflowers.

Lancashire Wildlife Trust Fylde Council Blackpool Council Environment Agency

02/10/2026

👣🌾 𝗢𝗻 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗮𝘆 🌾👣

In the morning we led the team on a guided walk of the dunes to showcase the work that the project does, and then followed up with some raking on the reserve to bag up some more of the cut wildflower meadow.

It was a great day, we were treated to some lovely sunshine considering the time of year!

Lancashire Wildlife Trust Fylde Council Blackpool Council Environment Agency

28/09/2026

💪 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗽 𝗰𝘂𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝘁 💪

The flat area behind the nature reserve hut is one of the best examples of a wildflower meadow we have on the Fylde dunes. Its a diverse area that includes a couple of species of wild orchids, wildflowers such as black knapweed, birds foot trefoil, goats beard, eyebright and the meadow maker itself yellow rattle, a variety of butterflies and moths and we often see voles, weasels, frog and toads in the area.

Its a good area to mow due to its relative flatness, we leave areas of longer grass on its edges and also on some lumps and bumps. These longer vegetated areas are used as a winter refuge for lots of wildlife. We rake the grass off to reduce nutrient input, which keeps the grasses at bay and promotes diverse wildflower growth.

Lancashire Wildlife Trust Fylde Council Blackpool Council Environment Agency

21/09/2026

🌸𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗽 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗹𝗺𝗮𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝗶𝘀𝘆🌸

A European alpine plant that is an attractive species to have in gardens, the Michaelmas daisy is classed as an invasive on the dunes. It enjoys low nutrient, calcareous soils which we have a lot of on the dunes, rapidly spreads and blankets areas quickly. Due to its compact nature it forms dense clumps, shading light out and blocking the growth of native wildflowers and grasses.

Its very easy to pull out so the volunteers were out pulling up a large area before it could go to seed. We have also been cutting some larger areas to reduce its spread.

Lancashire Wildlife Trust Fylde Council Blackpool Council Environment Agency

14/09/2026

🌺🌹🌾𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗮𝗴𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗽 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲🌾🌹🌺

Our volunteers were back out again raking off the cut wildflower meadows on the Local Nature Reserve.

Lots of areas are left uncut so that small mammals and invertebrates can still shelter. we also don't cut the grass as short as you would in your garden, therefore any small mammals and invertebrates that want to cross the cut areas still have protection from predators.

Lancashire Wildlife Trust Fylde Council Blackpool Council Environment Agency

Address

Lytham St Annes

Telephone

+447860954290

Website

https://www.lancswt.org.uk/our-work/projects/fylde-sand-dunes

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19/10/2026

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13/10/2026

12/10/2026

05/10/2026

02/10/2026

28/09/2026

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