Cors Pant Marsh

Situated alongside the River Clun, this floodplain meadow is home to a rich diversity of fauna and flora and a prime example of rhos pasture.

Buzzard | © Wayne Withers

Habitat

Pant Marsh is a rare, species-rich floodplain grassland which depends on the River Clun’s floods and high flows. This gives a special character to the rich mosaic of neutral and marshy grassland, swamp and wet woodland. These habitats need sympathetic grazing, ‘cut and collect’ and woodland management, and invasive plant control.

When to Visit

In summer, spot the creamy white flowers of meadowsweet and angelica. The pink ragged robin flowers enliven the sedge
beds while violet-blue spires of the beautiful, but very poisonous, monk’s-hood flower in riverbank shade. In early autumn there is a haze of blue-purple devil’s-bit scabious. In winter, snipe feed and in spring, reed buntings sing.

Biodiversity

The habitats here are fantastic for species such as the small copper butterfly, burnet companion moth and the small-scabious bee. Grass snakes hunt for frogs in the marshy grass, dipper search for shrimp in the river riffles and otters pass through. Buzzards, with their cat-like ‘kee-yaa’ call, can be identified by their broad, rounded wings and short tails.

Characteristic plants include marsh marigold, flag iris and opposite-leaved golden saxifrage. Beds of rare bladder sedge and the beautiful marsh cinquefoil grow in wet runnels, with bird’s-foot trefoil and rough hawkbit in the dry grassland.