HONEY-pot view points are often discounted by local people as tacky places best avoided, certainly not worth visiting to see wildlife, even if they have a good view.

The reason given would be "far too many people".

From my personal experience these are just the places where natural habitats have survived better than elsewhere.

Often because of the steady stream of visitors.

The surprising truth is that millions of visitors' feet are far less damaging to wildlife than modern intensive agriculture.

Orrest Head above Windermere Railway Station is just such a place.

Orrest Head is a "must see" for the first-time visitor to Windermere or Bowness.

A very popular honey-pot attraction, and rightly so.

Well-known by name to people all over Westmorland, but who in Kendal, Ulverston or Grange would think of visiting Orrest Head?

The tourist on holiday is bowled over by Orrest Head.

An easy to climb Lakeland fell with stunning views of mountains and lakes with a genuine wilderness feel about it.

For the beginner walker; for families with small children, and people who can no longer climb the high fells, Orrest Head is a treasure trove of delights, only 20 minutes walk from the centre of Windermere.

All the satisfaction of getting to the top, spectacular views, and below your feet a range of wildflowers typical of the mountains, yet so rare in Lakeland.

On Orrest Head the upland and the lowlands meet in the space of only a few yards.

At just over 700ft, the rocky summit is more like a mountain peak than fells twice its height, with heather and bilberry growing from the crevices.

Not far away on the lower slopes, at only 650ft, are valley bottom flowers such as knapweed, devils-bit scabious and betony growing in grassland.

In sheltered areas brambles and hawthorn bushes are becoming established, creating excellent conditions for warblers and other birds.

The varied and diverse structure and the range of flowers creates perfect conditions for butterflies, other invertebrates and small mammals.

Why is so small a place so different and so special? Mainly because Orrest Head isn't grazed to a billiard table sward year after year by sheep.

It is disconcerting to realise that in a National Park that has a duty to look after wildlife, the number of sheep in the park increased (according to figures collected by MAFF) from 650,000 to 740,000 between 1988 and 1998.

Back in 1975 there were only 440,000 sheep in the national park.

It's hard to imagine an extra 300,000 sheep busy eating away at the Lakeland fells.

There were already too many sheep even in 1975! It's not surprising heather has become restricted to a few places such as Orrest Head and alpine flowers cling on to a few remote inaccessible cliff ledges.

Recent changes in the European agricultural subsidy system will start to reverse this trend, as payments change from headage to area based payments.

However, we still have a long way to go as the changes are not coming on-stream until next year.

What is needed is a steady and sustained year on year reduction in sheep numbers.

What appears more likely is a catastrophic disappearance of both farmers and sheep from the uplands.

While over-grazing has been bad for wildlife, no grazing presents a different set of problems in the long-term.

Farmers and conservationists are continuing to work together to solve what is a common problem.

In the meantime Orrest Head remains an excellent place to visit.

Peter Bullard.

Director, Cumbria Wildlife Trust.