Holme Fen

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title: "Holme Fen" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["sites-of-special-scientific-interest-in-cambridgeshire", "nature-conservation-review-sites", "national-nature-reserves-in-england", "lowest-points-of-countries", "huntingdonshire", "extreme-points-of-the-united-kingdom"] description: "Nature reserve and lowest point in the UK" topic_path: "technology/web" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holme_Fen" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Nature reserve and lowest point in the UK ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox SSSI"]

Field	Value
image	Holme Fen.jpg
name	Holme Fen
aos	Huntingdonshire
interest	Biological
gridref
area	269.4 hectares
notifydate	1985
map	Magic Map
::

| image = Holme Fen.jpg | image_caption = | name = Holme Fen | aos = Huntingdonshire | interest = Biological | gridref = | area = 269.4 hectares | notifydate = 1985 | map = Magic Map Holme Fen is a 269.4 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Holme in Huntingdonshire. It is also a National Nature Reserve and a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I. It is part of the Great Fen project, which aims to create a 3,700-hectare wetland wildlife area including Holme Fen, Woodwalton Fen and other areas. It is home to a variety of birds, including the Eurasian siskin, Nightingale and Lesser redpoll, and around 450 species of fungi.

Holme Fen is described by Natural England as the finest example of birch woodland in lowland Britain. Part of it was a mere which was drained in the nineteenth century, and some relict wetland plants survive such as saw sedge and fen wood-rush. Two new lakes have been excavated.

Holme Fen, specifically Holme Posts, is believed to be the lowest land point in the United Kingdom at 2.75 m below sea level.

History

On 22 November 1940, a Supermarine Spitfire, flown by Pilot Officer Harold Penketh, crashed into Holme Fen.

In October 2015, archaeological work to recover the Second World War Spitfire was undertaken. Led by Oxford Archaeology East's project director Stephen Macauley, the teams located and recovered artefacts from the crash. A film of the excavation was shown at the Great Fen's Countryside Centre, Ramsey Heights on 27 September 2019.

Access

The reserve is open to the public throughout the year. Several footpaths cross the site.

Management

Holme Fen is at the south-western edge of the former Whittlesey Mere, which has been drained. The Great Fen Project aims to reconnect Holme Fen with nearby Woodwalton Fen, another vestigial fragment of wild fenland. Holme approximately marks the south-western limit of Stage 2 of the Great Fen Project.

References

References

1. "Designated Sites View: Holme Fen". Natural England.
2. (August 2025). "Map of Holme Fen". Natural England.
3. "Cambridgeshire's National Nature Reserves". Natural England.
4. (1977). "A Nature Conservation Review". Cambridge University Press.
5. "Great Fen". Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.
6. (2008). "Holme Fen NNR".
7. "Holme Fen citation". Natural England.
8. (2002-11-29). "UK's lowest spot is getting lower". [[BBC]].
9. Fitton, Caroline. (2019). "Great Fen Spitfire revisited". The Fens: Wisbech & Surrounding.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::