About the reserve

The woodland canopy is varied, including species such as Ash, Beech, Sessile Oak, Holly, Sycamore, Wych Elm, and Grand Fir, typical of woods associated with large country houses in west Wales. Some of these specimens are extremely large, including the county’s tallest tree, a specimen of Sequoiadendron giganteum.

The diversity of mature trees provides an excellent habitat for hole nesting birds and all three woodpecker species have been recorded in the past, together with Nuthatch, Pied Flycatcher, Stock Dove, Tawny Owl, and Treecreeper.

The wood is rich in lichens and fungi, with the shade loving crustose lichen Enterographa crassa being particularly abundant, an indicator of the longevity of woodland cover on this site. In the early summer the western end of the reserve is a spectacular carpet of Bluebells and locally abundant Wood Anemone.