Axbridge Hill and Fry's Hill


Axbridge Hill and Fry's Hill is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, notified in 1990. The hills are above the town of Axbridge, immediately to the east of Shute Shelve Hill.
This is a nationally important botanical site, for both vascular and non-vascular plants, situated on the southern escarpment of the Mendip Hills. It also contains a roosting site for two nationally rare species of bat and a wide range of butterfly species. The very thin soils here support populations of one nationally rare species, Cheddar bedstraw and four nationally scarce species, pale St John's wort, sea storksbill, dwarf mouse-ear and spring cinquefoil. There is a roosting site for greater horseshoe bat and lesser horseshoe bat R. hipposideros, both of which are nationally rare. Dormice are found in the woodland. Twenty-five species of butterfly have been recorded and these include: brown argus, green hairstreak, dark green fritillary and marbled white.