Parc Nant Celyn

Bordering the Parc Nant Celyn estate, this is a great example of nature on your doorstep. Made up of a naturalised pond and stream and several wet, wildflower-rich grasslands that are both machine-managed and conservation grazed.

Brimstone | © Wayne Withers

Habitat

Parc Nant Celyn is a wonderful, low-lying wetland of biodiversity-rich marshy (rhos) grassland, wet hay meadow, and woodland. Conservation grazing with cows and ‘cut and collect’ management with special machines allow these flowery meadows to look their very best.

When to Visit

In the spring, Nant Celyn echoes with the songs of willow warblers, blackcaps, blackbirds and song
thrushes. Moschatel and bluebell bloom beneath
the trees. The summer hay meadow is flower-rich with southern marsh orchids, angelica, marsh bedstraw, and great hairy willowherb. In the marsh you’ll find meadow thistle, bugle and tormentil. The site changes from green to the russet orange and yellow of autumn, and kestrels hunt voles in the grey winter.

Biodiversity

Purple moor-grass, rushes, greater bird’s-foot trefoil, tormentil, ragged robin and meadowsweet are just a few of the grassland wonders of Nant Celyn. Shy
grass snakes will search for frogs in the wet grass, and you may glimpse a fleeting sparrowhawk. Orange-tip butterflies lay their eggs on cuckoo flower, so try and
spot their tiny orange eggs. Hedges have alder buckthorn, the foodplant of the brimstone butterfly. The bright yellow colour of a male brimstone is said to have inspired the name ‘butter-fly’.