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Part of the RCT Living Landscape Project

Cefn Yr Hendy

Cefn yr Hendy has three small but beautiful ancient woodlands. Once used for iron ore mining and limestone quarrying, they are recovered by nature.

Home to a wonderful limestone flora with just hollows and hummocks as reminders of an industrial past. Sensitive management of diseased ash trees, retaining deadwood, and preventing litter and garden rubbish are important management priorities here.

Cefn-Yr-Hendy
Robin
Robin | © Wayne Withers

Habitat

Cefn yr Hendy’s fantastic habitats and rich biodiversity are based on a long industrial and farming history. Seeds from the wonderful ancient hazel and oak hedgerows found here have naturally propagated the new woodland. There is a wildflower meadow with an old iron ore mine hidden below, and a network of wildflower verges looked after by special ‘cut and collect’ management.

Cefn yr Hendy has three superb ancient woodlands, and although small they are home to a fantastic array of species. At this westernmost end you’ll enter through an oak, hazel and hawthorn woodland with blackthorn scrub, bracken and ancient hedgerows and banks. These vital corridors connect wildlife to all parts of the site.

When to Visit

In early spring enjoy the wildflowers and bird song, and on summer evenings watch bats as they hunt for moths. In the autumn look for fungi and in the winter follow goldcrests, long-tailed, blue and great tits foraging in the leafless trees.

In spring, the hedges and woodland are full of wildflowers and birdsong. Later in the summer, the meadow comes to life with wildflowers. The autumn is fantastic for grassland fungi, and in winter mistle thrushes and flocks of fieldfares feed on hawthorn berries. Pay a visit in the twilight to see bats feeding on flying insects.

DunnockDunnock | © Wayne Withers

Biodiversity

The limestone woodlands have tall beech and ash trees, hazel coppice, dogwood and spindle. An outstanding ground flora includes carpets of bluebells, primrose, wood anemone, violets and ramsons. The parasitic toothwort grows at the base of old hazel bushes and a rich fern flora includes beautiful soft shield ferns and giant male ferns. Although not found yet, the old hazel coppice area might just support dormice, so look out for the distinctively opened hazel nuts!

This is great bird habitat with resident wrens, treecreepers, chiffchaff and autumn flocks of goldfinch which feed on the meadow’s seeds. The ancient hedge banks have an equally ancient woodland ground flora, home to bluebell, primrose,
pignuts, and moschatel. You may also see glue-crust fungi, which stick dead hedgerow twigs to live ones. Hundreds of common spotted orchids flower in the verges too, where the rare long-horned bee forages and foxes hunt at night.

The scrub provides excellent nesting habitat for song thrush, bullfinch and dunnock, and cover for bank voles and field mice that are hunted by tawny owls at night. Here, pignut grows in abundance, toothwort lives on hazel roots, and the cool shade is perfect for ferns, particularly hart's tongue, soft-shield, male and
broad buckler. Make sure you look out for the two ancient, joined field maple trees near the school that were once part of an old hedgerow.

We Live Here... Can You Spot Us?

BlueBells

Bluebell - © Bethan Dalton

Turkeytail-Fungus

Turkeytail Fungus - © Bob Lewis

Toothwort

Toothwort - © Wayne Withers

Dormouse-Hazelnut

Dormouse Hazelnut

Wood-Anemone

Wood Anemone - © Bob Lewis

Treecreeper

Treecreeper - © Holly Tudball

Speckled-Wood-2

Speckled Wood - © Bethan Dalton

Beech

Beech - © Bob Lewis