Orchid-spotting around Shoreham's SSSIs

Common spotted, pyramidal, fragrant, bee, man - orchids are easy to identify for beginners and experts alike as the name describes the flower. Orchids thrive on chalk grassland, the internationally rare habitat that characterises the North Downs and earns the slopes above Shoreham their SSSI status. From Shoreham Station we go up White Hill (so-called for its chalk-loving whitebeams, with white undersides to the leaves) to Magpie Bottom and return via Fackenden Down. If the day is sunny, the meadows will be aflutter with butterflies.