A long awaited £55 million scheme to create a new tourist attraction by flooding large swathes of low lying grassland for wading birds is nearing completion at Arne near Wareham in Dorset.
From April 2026, work will begin on the final stages at The Moors at Arne project by moving creatures like water voles and reptiles out of the 150 hectares which will become saltmarsh and intertidal mudflats, to areas where they will be able to survive.
Work on The Moors at Arne is well under way, as shown in this aerial photo from January 2026
Reserve may open by January 2027
The major action in early autumn 2026, will be to make three holes or breaches in the embankment on the edge of Poole Harbour.
This will allow the newly created lagoons to flood, after which the tide will naturally create salt marshes and mudflats where wildlife is expected to thrive.
It is understood the reserve will be open to the public to explore from early 2027, and may be as early as January.
Once completed it is expected to attract more than 20,000 tourists a year with new paths ideal for walkers forming a network around the lagoons.
The reserve will also be great for spotting birds including Mediterranean visitors such as spoonbills, cranes and cattle egret, as well as godwit, bittern, guillemot, stork, sandpipers, curlew, and many more of the 333 species which have been recorded in the harbour.
An artist’s impression of what the Arne Moors will look like after completion
Protecting 3,000 homes at Poole
The Moors at Arne, paid for by government funding, is part of a larger scheme to protect homes and property in the east of Poole Harbour – such as Millionaires’ Row at Sandbanks – from being flooded in the future.
The Environment Agency’s flood management strategy around Poole Harbour is to maintain seawall defences to protect 3,000 homes in Poole, but that results in the loss of legally protected intertidal habitat in the west, especially around Arne, due to a process known as coastal squeeze.
The Moors at Arne will create 150 hectares of new intertidal habitat by way of legally required compensation, but will also result in a new tourist attraction for Purbeck.
An adder pictured at The Moors, which will be tagged and relocated away from what will become saltwater sections
Ecology team radio tags adders
Emily Brown, a senior environmental project manager at the Environment Agency, said:
“It’s a fascinating project to work on – one moment I’m interpreting planning legislation, the next I’m watching the ecology team radio tag adders or learning about incredibly rare wetland plants.
“It’s inspiring to be part of a team creating such a large expanse of saltmarsh, which will provide invaluable habitat for fish, birds, and other wildlife.
“I love Dorset’s coastline and outside the project, I spend much of my time in, on, and under the sea.
“I’m a licensed seahorse surveyor and spend many hours recording seahorses as part of a population study off local beaches.”
An aerial shot of The Moors from 2025 with work under way
“Wildlife can continue to thrive”
Environment Agency project teams say the new landscape will evolve naturally over time as tides deposit sediments, and vegetation begins to colonise the marshes.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said:
“This type of habitat is being lost in other areas of Poole Harbour due to coastal squeeze, so by allowing the tide to enter the site and shape the land, we will create new mudflats and saltmarsh where wildlife can continue to thrive for decades to come.
“As we approach the final year of construction at The Moors at Arne in Dorset, we’ve been looking back at some brilliant milestones achieved in the last year, which include creating 13 lagoon island habitats, and building nearly 1,500 metres of a new embankment.
“We have also laid close to 2,000 metres of paths, which will eventually connect with existing walking routes at the nearby RSPB Arne reserve, and relocated six hectares of turf from what will be intertidal areas to freshwater areas.
“Over the coming months, we’ll be preparing for the final stages, creating 78 hectares of intertidal habitat. Towards the end of the year, three breaches will be made in the existing harbour edge embankment, allowing tides to flow in and naturally form saltmarsh and mudflats.
“Over time, the movement of the tides at The Moors at Arne will create new spaces where wildlife can continue to thrive.”
Suttle Projects were appointed by main contractor Kier to build structures that will control water levels on the completed scheme
Water voles must be relocated
Engineers have also installed specialised water control structures that will regulate water levels in different parts of the site once it becomes tidal.
One of the most delicate aspects of the final construction phase involves safeguarding animals that currently inhabit the low-lying grasslands.
Water voles – one of Britain’s fastest declining mammals – live along many of the ditches at Arne Moors, and as parts of their habitat will eventually become tidal, they must be relocated to suitable freshwater environments nearby.
Specially designed floating rafts are being placed along ditches where ecologists humanely trap the animals before transferring them to carefully selected release sites.
Reptiles such as adders, slow worms and grass snakes will also be moved ahead of the embankment breaches. To help them settle, new hibernation habitats have been built outside the future intertidal area.
A rare marsh harrier was spotted on the site in February 2026
135 bird species recorded in 2024
Ecologists are also monitoring bird populations on the site through regular surveys to ensure construction work does not disturb important overwintering species.
Even during construction, the site has proved attractive to wildlife, with more than 135 bird species recorded in 2024 alone, and once complete, The Moors at Arne is expected to attract a remarkable variety of birdlife.
Poole Harbour hosts more than 300 recorded species in any given year, and the new mudflats and lagoons will provide ideal feeding and nesting grounds for many of them.
The lagoon islands have been designed specifically to provide safe nesting areas away from predators and disturbance, and project teams say the diversity of habitats, from freshwater pools to saline lagoons, will support everything from insects and fish to birds of prey.
Pathways are already being laid across the site as part of walking trail for visitors
Bronze Age people visited Arne in summer
Archaeological work on the site was carried out at the start of the project, and uncovered some fascinating finds from both the Bronze Age periods and the time of Roman occupation.
It’s thought that Bronze Age people living in Swanage and Wareham would visit Arne in the summer months, maybe to dig up peat for fuel, or collect reeds which they could use for building their homes and boats, or making arrows.
It was from this period, around 3,500 years ago, that a partially broken spade, one of the earliest wooden tools ever to have been found in Britain, was found at Arne in a perfectly preserved state.
A rare Bronze Age wooden spade was found on site and has been dated as 3,500 years old
“Threw it away in disgust”
Phil Trim, of Wessex Archaeology, said:
“The spade was an amazing find, so rare that I wouldn’t even have considered putting it on my bucket list. It had sat in that ditch for three and a half thousand years without deteriorating, thanks to the wet conditions on site which meant that it remained waterlogged.
“In my mind, someone was using the spade to dig the ditch where we found it and broke it, threw it to the bottom of the ditch in disgust then kicked a pot which held his lunch, which also ended up in the ditch, then carried on using a different tool.
“The area would have been very wet, even in the Bronze Age, and it was unlikely that people lived there full time – there is a lack of evidence of any domestic occupation.
“So our discovery supports the theory that they came in during summer months to exploit some of the resources in that environment, as the spade itself would have been a perfect tool for cutting peat.”
Phil Trim of Wessex Archaeology on The Moors at Arne with some of his Roman ‘Tupperware’
“We refer to it as Roman Tupperware”
Phil Trim added:
“We also found evidence of pottery production from the Romano British period – Poole Harbour was heavily industrialised at that time and every headland would have a production site which I visualise as like Mordor with all the fires going.
“We know they are making black burnished ware here in the Iron Age, which the Romans took a real interest in when they arrived in Wareham in 44AD.
“It’s difficult to say exactly why as it’s not the type of pottery that you would use for fine dining, but it does have a very distinct colour with a nice, shiny finish.
“It’s for cooking use and we often refer to it as Roman Tupperware – by the end of the second or third century, everyone seems to have some in their cupboard!
A glirarium on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Chiusi, Italy
“A vessel to store dormice in”
Phil Trim said that he hoped that some key archaeological finds from The Moors at Arne would eventually go on display in Dorchester Museum, and possibly even go out on loan to Wareham, although he felt that the Bronze Age shovel may catch the attention of the British Museum.
But he added that there was another highly unusual find on The Moors at Arne site, saying:
“We also found a very interesting pot in two pieces, with a nice double lip, what looked like a lid inside it and some airholes – we had no idea what it was, so we sent it to experts.
“They came back and said it was a glirarium, a vessel designed to store dormice which the Romans viewed as a delicacy. It was really unusual, as the edible species of dormice didn’t exist in Britain – so why are we finding this jar at a pottery site near Wareham?
“Our best guess is that they are experimenting making them in black burnished ware to take back to Italy so that wealthy Romans could keep their dormice alive until they were ready to take one out and pop it in the fryer.”
Water voles are being taken away from areas which will become saline to new homes in freshwater areas of The Moors
A Dartford Warbler has already been spotted at The Moors, in March 2026
Further information
- Monthly updates on The Moors are on the Dorset Coast Forum website
