How to See a Smooth Snake

 

Smooth Snake - RSPB Arne, Dorset, UK

Smooth Snakes are the rarest, the hardest to find and (for me) the coolest of Britain's reptiles. 

Three things make it difficult to find a Smooth Snake. First, they have a massively restricted range. Second, even when you are on their home turf, they aren't exactly showy, preferring to skulk low down under vegetation. Third - and this is the really tricky one - they (and their habitats) are strictly protected by law. Don't go looking for one by yourself without a licence!

I'll look at each in turn and then suggest how you might get that elusive encounter. But I'll start with a couple of disclaimers: I am a volunteer reptile surveyor for Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and all of the Smooth Snake images in this post have been taken under relevant licences. 

Smooth Snake Identification

First things first: how would you recognise a Smooth Snake if you saw one?  

Smooth Snake - RSPB Arne (handled under licence)

Smooth Snakes are smaller than you might expect, being no longer than 50-55cm long. The background colour is often brown or grey (or a brownish grey!), with conspicuous spots along the back. These spots are usually brown, but can be darker in younger individuals, as in the image at the start of this blog post. But bear in mind that there are some dark (melanistic) individuals out there.

As with many snakes, the head is the best place to look for identification features. Smooth Snakes have a prominent heart-shaped mark (or 'crown') on the top of the head, which can range from black to brown as these photos show. The pattern is not uniform, allowing individuals to be identified from their particular pattern. They also have a dark horizontal stripe through the eye.  

Here's a close-up of the head of that Smooth Snake:

Smooth Snake head (detail)

Possible Confusion Species

If you are in the right part of the country - and I'll come to that shortly - then you could also encounter two other snakes, as well as one legless lizard. I'll take these in turn.

The easiest snake to rule out is the Grass Snake (below).

Grass Snake - RSPB Radipole

Grass Snakes are Britain's most distinctive snake. Generally much larger than Smooth Snakes, they can be 80cm to one metre long but sometimes more. The one in the photo above was relatively small. Grass Snakes are often found near, or sometimes in, ponds and other water bodies: frogs, toads and newts form a big part of their diet. But garden compost heaps are also popular places for them to hang out.

Apart from their respective sizes, there are three main differences between Grass Snakes and Smooth Snakes:

• Grass Snakes have a distinct collar with yellow or orange patches in front of a conspicuous black mark. This collar is absent in Smooth Snakes. Here's a close-up of that Grass Snake's head:

Grass Snake head (detail)

• The background colour of Grass Snakes is usually greenish-olive, compared to the usual grey-brown of Smooth Snakes. (But bear in mind that the colour of both species can vary.) 
• Although both Smooth and Grass Snakes are spotted, the markings on Grass Snakes tend to be a sharply distinct black colour and located along the flanks rather than the back. As already mentioned, the spots on Smooth Snakes are usually brown, although young Smooth Snakes can have darker and more obvious markings than adults. 

Rather more confusing is the Adder (below), Britain's only venomous snake:

Adder - Isle of Jura, Scotland

Adders are often in a similar size bracket to Smooth Snakes (40-55cm long), although female Adders can be bigger (up to 70cm). It should go without saying that Adders are dangerous (they do bite people and their venom is potentially fatal), so keep your distance and do not handle them! 

At first glance, Adders and Smooth Snakes share some characteristics: as well as being of a broadly similar size, both species have regular patterns on their backs and dark marks on the top of their heads. However, Smooth Snakes have spots on their back while Adders have a dark zig-zag pattern. But note that Adders are variable in colour, and some of the lighter examples can look similar to Smooth Snakes. Black Adders are more common than melanistic Smooth Snakes.

Also, the pattern on the top of an Adder's head is a dark V or X shape (see below) while, as already described, Smooth Snakes have a heart shaped mark. 

Adder head with V-shaped mark - West Bexington, Dorset

The good news is that there is a definitive way to distinguish Adders from either of the other two native British snakes: Adders have red eyes with a vertical pupil (see below). Smooth Snakes and Grass Snakes have eyes with round pupils. This is best viewed with close-focus binoculars or by taking photos with a decent camera lens. Keep well separated from the snake itself.

Adder head showing vertical pupil - West Bexington, Dorset

For the sake of completeness, don't forget Slow Worms. At first sight, these legless lizards can be mistaken for snakes, but a closer look will reveal a lizard-like head, a more 'chunky' profile than a snake and a characteristically smooth and shiny skin. In fact, they can look smoother than a Smooth Snake. If you get really close to a Slow Worm then you'll see that (like all lizards) they blink. Snakes don't.

Not a snake! Slow Worm in the garf- Dorset, UK

Slow Worms are common, and welcome, residents of less-tidy gardens (my garden included). But they are also found on lowland heaths that are occupied by Smooth Snakes. Indeed, Slow Worms form part of the diet of Smooth Snakes, although Sand Lizards and small mammals (especially young mice) are more commonly eaten. There's more about lizards in a previous blog post.

An excellent reptile identification guide is available as a free download from Amphibian and Reptile Conservation.

Smooth Snake habitat - lowland heath at RSPB Arne, Dorset, UK

Seeing Smooth Snakes

In Britain, Smooth Snakes are only found on the lowland heathlands of southern England, especially those in Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey. Reintroductions have taken place in other southern counties including in Devon on the Pebblebed Heaths National Nature Reserve - more details here.

There is a UK distribution map for Smooth Snake in the National Biodiversity Network Atlas.

In my patch of Dorset, Smooth Snakes are present on various heathlands in Purbeck (the area south of Wareham) and the wider Poole Harbour basin. There are good numbers (35-40 individuals according the RSPB's news release that I've linked above) at RSPB Arne, where I am a volunteer, although they are rarely (if ever) seen by visitors; most casual snake sightings on the reserve tend to be of Adders. While Adders can sometimes be seen basking on open ground, Smooth Snakes are more more reluctant to emerge from the stands of deep heather where they spend most of their time. Even when warming up, they will often be wrapped around heather stems, providing very effective camouflage. If you have seen a Smooth Snake out in the open, and it does happen, then you have been extremely lucky.

Smooth Snake vanishing into the heather - RSPB Arne

As already mentioned, Smooth Snakes are strictly protected (here's the relevant legislation). Searching for one by yourself risks breaking the law, as well as disturbing a fantastic species that I'm sure we all want to protect. Fortunately, there are better ways of seeing Smooth Snakes in the wild.

Several of the organisations that own or manage heathland reserves arrange guided walks where a licensed surveyor will take groups out in search of reptiles. In the right locations these have a very good chance of seeing Smooth Snakes, as well as other heathland stars such as the spectacular Sand Lizard - although as with all wildlife encounters nothing is guaranteed. An added advantage is that you will learn a bit about the habits and ecology of the species concerned.

Some of the places and organisations that run reptile walks in Smooth Snake habitat are listed below, but bear in mind that at the time of writing this (November 2025) we are out of the reptile viewing season, so most events are unlikely to be scheduled before Spring 2026:

RSPB Arne - link here.

Dorset Wildlife Trust - link here

Dorset Heaths Partnership - link here

Surrey Wildlife Trust - link here

Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (link here) run more in-depth training courses for reptile surveyors which are well worth considering if you live near areas of good reptile habitat and would like to spend more time surveying and helping to conserve these fascinating creatures. 

Further Reading

Beebee, T. and Griffiths, R. (2000) Amphibians and Reptiles. (Collins New Naturalist). Excellent detail about the ecology and life histories of Britain's snakes.

Inns, H. (2009). Britain's Reptiles and Amphibians. (Princeton Wildguides). Really useful, as it focuses upon the few British snake species, and well illustrated. Howard is the person holding a Smooth Snake in one of the photos in this blog.

Speybroeck, J. et al. (2016) Field Guide to the Amphibians & Reptiles of Europe (British Wildlife Field Guides) London: Bloomsbury. This contains far more detail that you need for snake-spotting in Britain, but it's good to understand our species in their wider European context.