Belshaw is a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 (SSSI) in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It lies to the west of the village of Belton

Belton, Lincolnshire

Belton is a village in the civil parish of Belton and Manthorpe, in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies north of Grantham, on the A607 road.The Saxon meaning of Belton is a bell-shaped hollow.-The Village:...

 in the Isle of Axholme

Isle of Axholme

The Isle of Axholme is part of North Lincolnshire, England. It is the only part of Lincolnshire west of the River Trent. It is between the three towns of Doncaster, Scunthorpe and Gainsborough.- Description:...

. The site, which was designated a SSSI in 1988, is a short length of land along a disused railway line and is important because it supports a colony of greater yellow-rattle

Rhinanthus angustifolius

Rhinanthus angustifolius or Greater Yellow-rattle is a Lamiales plant species of the genus Rhinanthus. It is a perennial wildflower native to temperate grasslands in much of Europe, and north and central Western Asia.-Distribution:...

. This ia a nationally rare plant which receives special protection under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981. Once widely distributed, this species is now known to occur at only six localities in Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

.