Welcome to Buckland Lake Reserve

Trout fishery, mixed coarse lake and wildfowl reserve. For fishery opening times please see fishing page.

The reserve is open 7 days a week from 8.00 - 16.00, last entry at 15.00. To help with our projects and gardening click here

A beautiful summers day on Buckland Lake.

Buckland Lake is an exciting wildfowl project, to convert a flooded 60 acre chalk quarry into a first class nature reserve, education facility, fishery and dive centre. This is a project for everyone. Especially catering for families, the elderly and disabled. We want everybody to have an enjoyable time while visiting to learn about wildfowl, conservation and care of the environment in this amazing part of the country.

Our long term aim is to achieve a blend that preserves, enhances and promotes the interests of wildfowl while at the same time, offers a secure, relaxed and comfortable environment for people, with something for all visitors. From a cup of tea and a pleasant stroll to fully hands on wildlife courses. Nothing too big and nothing too small. Wildfowl engagement as simple or as advanced as you wish. This is a serious wildfowl project but it’s about having fun too.

Located near the historic village of Cliffe in Kent, between Rochester and Gravesend, this area is one of the most spectacular and important in Europe for resident and migratory wildfowl. The extensive Thames and Medway estuary mud flats can host hundreds of thousands of wildfowl during an average winter.

Above: This 2009 photograph of Buckland Lake outlines the location for our fishery pools. To view the map full size click here. Designated as part of the national and internationally important area for wildfowl (SSSI and Ramsar), Buckland Lake provides protected inland roosting for wildfowl during hard winters. Warmer winters have however reduced that function but now our new and exciting plans to create optimised resources for feeding, breeding and roosting, mean it is set to become far more important than ever before. See History. The RSPB ‘Cliffe Pools,’ lie just past our door and are a paradise for dedicated bird spotters and possibilities for walkers across miles and miles of open countryside abound. It’s no wonder that this region is designated as a national park.