Butterfly World

This site, just off the M25 near St Albans, is designed to look like an enormous butterfly head from the air with a 100m diameter walk-through biome designed to be the butterfly’s eye when it opens in Autumn 2012. There’s plenty to see before then though, with a large walk-through butterfly tunnel providing a sneak preview of what’s to come. Also open is the butterfly breeding house, where kids can see first hand all the incredible stages of a butterfly’s life cycle from egg to caterpillar to pupa to butterfly. The Insect Study Centre is often used by school groups during the week, but casual visitors are welcome to observe the specimens inside its transparent containers. The 20 acres of wildflower meadows (designed to attract and support native butterflies and insects) are a blaze of colour during summer, and the specialist gardens that stretch down one side of the site are also lots of fun. A new leafcutter ant exhibition opened in 2011 and the playground has been extended. It’s an educational but very fun day out.