Urban landscape rarely fires the imagination or lifts the spirits. Think industrial, overcrowded, noisy and polluted.

But heathland, even in an urban area, turns all your prejudices on their head, as you will see if you visit one of the lesser-known Dorset examples, Upton Heath.

True, it’s not a promising start as you near the 500-acre site. Bordered by a landfill site, with traffic noise from a nearby main road and electricity pylons dominating the skyline, as well as a small industrial site on the approach road, it is not the stuff of a Dorset idyll.

Yet within a few steps of leaving the modern world and all its stress, you catch a glimpse of a rabbit munching grass, oblivious to all external distractions. Moments later, still only on the edge of the heathland, the endangered Dartford warbler makes its characteristic looping flight between young birch trees. Take a little time to ‘stand and stare’, as the poet WH Davies urged us all to do and watch as golden ringed and broad-bodied chaser dragonflies skim past.

Maybe you’ll also spot one of the six British reptile species that make our heaths their preferred living space.

A mosaic of habitat, heathland can offer copses, acid grassland, scattered scrub and, importantly (though perhaps surprisingly), bare ground. It ranges from dry to humid and wet conditions, including mires and bog pools; variety that enables it to support such a range of diverse native insects, birds, reptiles and mammals. It looks wild and untamed. But it isn’t, as Upton Heath warden Andy Fale explains. “Heaths are man-made – they haven’t developed naturally, and they need management to retain the special features they provide for wildlife.”

Britain’s heaths first emerged around 4,000 years ago when woodlands were cleared for human habitation and many of the practices employed then are still used to retain today’s heathland and prevent it from reverting to forest.

Two hundred years ago Dorset claimed 100,000 acres of heathland. Today it is just 18,000.

“The loss of heathland is mainly from human pressure – building, forestry, agriculture,” said Andy.

What remains is now under protection through SSSI (Special Site of Scientific Interest) and SNCI (Site of Nature Conservation Interest) designation, as well as European Union conservation area status.