Six top sites for getting back to nature

Pitch up and settle in for wildlife watching!

1 Ballyness Caravan Park

Ballyness, in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, is the ideal base for exploring the Giant’s Causeway and the coastline. Onsite, three ponds are home to wildfowl, herons and other birdlife, grass areas have been set aside to encourage frogs, and there’s a wooded wetland for wildlife. A well provides water for maintenance work and solar panels supply power. Street lighting is from LEDS placed low down to reduce light pollution. ballynesscaravanpark.com

2 Trewan Hall

At Trewan Hall, the gardens and woodlands are home to a large variety of plants and trees, as well as owls, and a wildflower meadow. The Cornish campsite is respectful of its agricultural heritage, with plant selection appropriate rather than ornamental, and careful woodland management.

Use of green cleaning products, low-energy lighting and solar-powered heating add to its eco-friendly credentials. trewan-hall.co.uk

3 Whitehill Country Park

Whitehill’s beautiful setting in 40 stunning acres of Devon countryside means that it hosts a vast array of wildlife, and a quarter of those acres is ancient woodland, enriched with native wildflowers. The woods are carefully managed, as are several areas in the park that are left to nature. This attracts insects, bees, small mammals and birds. whitehill-park.co.uk

4 Tudor Caravan Park

Tudor Caravan Park in Gloucestershire is a Honey Bee Friendly Park and has won Wildflower Habitat and Hedgerows Awards, recognising its efforts to extend the flowering season with a buddleia bed and wild borders. Wildlife is already present because of the site’s location by the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, but log piles, bird boxes, insect houses and planting thousands of local hedge and tree species encourage even more. tudorcaravanpark.com

5 Resipole Farm Holiday Park

On the edge of a splendid sea loch in the Western Highlands, Resipole has plenty of wildlife for visitors to observe. The aim is to keep the campsite’s impact low. Water from a burn onsite is treated with UV and filters, taps and showers are push-button controlled, and much of the lighting around the site is provided by LEDS, with sensor controls. Cleaning is with eco-friendly products. Tree planting, nest boxes and deadwood piles encourage local wildlife and flora to flourish. resipole.co.uk

6 Tyddyn Isaf Caravan & Camping Park

Tyddyn Isaf, on the beautiful island of Anglesey, off the north-western coast of Wales, puts conservation at the heart of everything that it does, and as a result, rabbits, hedgehogs, red squirrels and more have made this their home. Tyddyn Isaf has its own solar panel field, powering the main building and other facilities. Easy access to the beach and the many walking and cycling trails means that there’s little reason to take your car off-site. tyddynisaf.co.uk