Mynwent Cefn y Parc

Cemeteries often offer a great habitat for native grassland species that are usually lost in agricultural fields. ‘Cut and collect’ management is helping species such as the rare green-winged orchid to survive.

Goldfinch | © Wayne Withers

Habitat

The cemetery is home to a wonderful hay meadow, looked after by ‘cut and collect’ management. Few old hay meadows have survived modern farming methods, so the one you see before you is a rare survivor. All summer the grassland is left to flower and seed before the hay is cut and removed. This is the secret to conserving and encouraging wildflowers.

When to Visit

In the spring, enjoy dainty yellow cowslips and the rare green-winged orchid. In summer the meadow is a sea of grasses and flowers, dappled with yellow and downy-oat grasses, the ‘eggs and bacon’ colours of common bird’s-foot trefoil, field scabious and black knapweed. Autumn brings amazingly colourful fungi, in particular bright orange fibrous waxcaps and apricot hues of meadow waxcaps. In the colder months the worm-rich grass attracts visiting flocks of redwings.

Biodiversity

Here you’ll find delicate quaking grass, its pendulous heart-shaped seed heads quake in the breeze. The meadow is great for insects, including the six-spot burnet and Mother Shipton’s moths, and the common blue butterfly. Slugs and snails attract foraging hedgehogs, and in the late summer flocks of goldfinches feed on wildflowers that have gone to seed.