About the reserve

The woodland floor here is thick with fallen trees, branches and twigs providing many places for mosses, liverworts, lichens and fungi to grow, and woodland insects to burrow in rotting wood.

On steep slopes and with a stream running along the valley bottom this reserve has huge amounts of atmosphere at any time of year but perhaps spring is the best time to visit when Wild Garlic and Bluebells can cover much of the forest floor and Early Purple Orchids grow alongside the paths. Mosses carpet the sides of the deep tracks and the bases of many trees.

This wood is a wonderful example of the wildlife diversity that will accumulate if a woodland is given a chance develop in a natural way. The deep leaf litter, branches and twigs carpeting the woodland floor making it hard to get about for us humans but a wonderful refuge for the mice, voles, woodland insects and  dead wood fungi that make this place their home.

Visit in spring when the fronds of many types of ferns are unfolding in a truly prehistoric way and the wood echoes with calls of Nuthatch and Greater Spotted Woodpecker. In winter this is a favourite feeding place for Redwings and Fieldfares. Buzzards often circle overhead here.