Lottery grant for nature reserve

Guillemots at Berry Head. Pic: Chris Gomersall, RSPB

A nature reserve in South Devon is on the way to an overhaul after getting £850,000 lottery funding.

Berry Head in Brixham will put the money towards a £1.8m three-year project to improve the site for wildlife and visitors.

The Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust, which runs the nature reserve, wants to create a new visitor centre and cafe.

It also wants to convert some of the Napoleonic-era forts on the site into learning and training centres.

There are also plans to clear invasive scrub which is choking rare plants, update signs, employ more staff and set up a traffic system to stop unauthorised vehicles entering the site.

The 100-acre site is home to a colony of greater horseshoe bats and the colony of guillemots breeding on the cliffs is the largest on the Channel coast and the most southerly in the UK.