Ownership: Defence Estates

Designation: SSSI, SAC, SPA

Restrictions: Strictly no public access.

The Reserve

Clouds Hill is 12.43 hectares in total, but split into two separate reserves. The main site which is located closest to the road is dry dominated apart from a wet flush running along the western edge of the reserve. The smaller second site located further into the military tank training area is entirely dry heath surround by Scots pine plantation. Both of the sites have in the past had extensive heavy military training use.

What to see

Tank training activities have left behind them excellent topography with steep exposed dry sandy faces which is now exploited to its full potential by a very healthy population of sand lizards.

T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) served as a soldier in the Royal Tank Corps at Bovington from 1923 to 1925. He was living at Clouds Hill, when he met with a fatal motor- cycling accident on the 13th of May 1935. The memorial is located opposite the Clouds Hill reserve.