About the reserve

This small area of oak and ash woodland is surrounded by other wooded areas and lies on the west-facing slope of a ridge of Old Red Sandstone.  There has certainly been woodland here for hundreds of years, long enough for it to have acquired many of the characteristic plants of ancient woodland. Some of the singled ash trees give evidence of having grown up from former coppice, but there are also many fine standards of oak and ash. 

The moist humus-rich soils carry a carpet of bluebells in early spring, together with other ancient woodland indicators including bluebells, ramsons, dog's mercury, violets and broad-leaved helleborine. The wood contains a considerable amount of dead, fallen timber and rotting tree hulks, which provide valuable micro-habitats for fungi and wood-boring insects.