Barnsdale Wood
Selected Wild Place / Other Wild Places / Public Rights of Way / VC55 boundary
The Barnsdale car park is located alongside the wood, reached from the A606.
Part of the Rutland Water SSSI.
Site species count:
This ancient woodland covering 28 ha and is part of the Rutland Water SSSI. The wood is situated on Upper Lias clay and formerly lay within a Medieval deer park. It was partly destroyed through construction of the reservoir. It is a neglected coppice of the Peterken Ash-Maple, Ash-Hazel, Pedunculate Oak-Hazel and Invasive Elm types but has been partly planted with conifers.
Ash Fraxinus excelsior and Pedunculate Oak Quercus robur are the main canopy trees, along with Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus. There are a few large coppice stools. The shrub layer has abundant Bramble Rubus fruticosus and frequent Hazel Corylus avellana and Elder Sambucus nigra, with Field Maple Acer campestre locally frequent. The ground flora is species-poor. Bracken Pteridium aquilinum is locally abundant, while other species occurring in quantity are Bluebell Hyacynthoides non-scripta, Dog’s Mercury Mercurialis perennis and Bugle Ajuga reptans.
Notable plants recorded include Thin-spiked Wood-sedge Carex strigosa and Broad-leaved Helleborine Epipactis helleborine.
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