Upper Wye Gorge

Upper Wye Gorge
Site of Special Scientific Interest
The Wye Gorge from Symonds Yat Rock
Location within Monmouthshire
Area of Search	Gloucestershire, Hereford & Worcester, Monmouthshire
Grid reference	SO560155
Coordinates	51°49′34″N 2°39′00″W / 51.8261°N 2.6501°W / 51.8261; -2.6501Coordinates: 51°49′34″N 2°39′00″W / 51.8261°N 2.6501°W / 51.8261; -2.6501
Interest	Biological/Geological
Area	245.1 hectares (2.45 km²; 0.946 sq mi)
Notification	1969 (1969)
Natural England website

Upper Wye Gorge is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), noted for its biological and geological characteristics, around Symonds Yat in the Upper Wye Valley on the Wales–England border.^[1]^[2] The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).^[3]

Geography

The 245.1-hectare (606-acre) SSSI, of which 192 hectares (470 acres) are in England and 53.1 hectares (131 acres) are in Wales, notified in 1969, is located 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north east of the town of Monmouth. It lies within the civil parishes of Goodrich and Whitchurch in Herefordshire, English Bicknor in Gloucestershire and within the community of Monmouth in Monmouthshire.^[4]^[5]^[6]

The majority of the site is owned and managed by the Forestry Commission, with part of it owned and managed as a nature reserve by the Herefordshire Nature Trust. It contains part of Lady Park Wood, a National Nature Reserve in Wales (NNR), as well as King Arthur's Cave.^[1]^[7] Part of Lady Park Wood NNR is in England (Gloucestershire)^[8] and a larger part is in Wales.^[9]

The SSSI falls within the Wye Valley Woodlands/ Coetiroedd Dyffryn Gwy Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Habitats Directive.^[10]^[11]

Geology

The gorge is formed out of old red sandstone and carboniferous limestone, on top of which are a large variety of soils. These soils are mostly alkaline, but there are areas which have acidic surface layers.^[12]

A series of caves (including King Arthur's Cave) on the northern, English, side of the gorge is of great importance for their Pleistocene mammal remains. The oldest deposits include those from lion, red deer, reindeer, spotted hyena, woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros.^[12] Later deposits from colder periods include lemming and steppe pika.^[12]^[13] This provides evidence that humans had occupied the caves during this period.^[14]

Wildlife and ecology

Flora

As with other woodland in the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Upper Wye Gorge contains many species of trees that are locally and even nationally rare, forming one of the most extensive areas of semi-natural, broadleaved woodland in the entire valley. Due to the range of soils across the site, ten different types of woodland have been discovered to exist. Of particular interest are trees of the nationally rare large-leaved lime (Tilia platyphyllos), as well as whitebeam species: English whitebeam (Sorbus anglica), grey-leaved whitebeam (Sorbus porrigentiformis), rock whitebeam (Sorbus rupicola) and round-leaved whitebeam (Sorbus eminens).^[12]

The dominant tree species within the gorge are ash (Fraxinus excelsior), common beech (Fagus sylvatica), Cornish oak (Quercus petraea), English oak (Quercus robur) and silver birch (Betula pendula). Mid-level flora includes hazel (Corylus avellana), field maple (Acer campestre), small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata) and wych elm (Ulmus glabra).^[12]

Ground-layer plants are dominated by bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), bramble (Rubus fruticosus), common bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), dog's mercury (Mercurialis perennis), false brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum), great wood-rush (Luzula sylvatica). Scarce and locally uncommon plants that are found in the gorge are narrow-leaved bittercress (Cardamine impatiens), stinking hellebore (Helleborus foetidus), wood barley (Hordelymus europaeus) and wood fescue (Festuca altissima).^[12]

Grassland areas on the site contain the uncommon bloody cranes-bill (Geranium sanguineum) as well as the nationally scarce sedge species: dwarf sedge (Carex humilis), fingered sedge (Carex digitata) and soft-leaved sedge (Carex montana).^[12]

Fauna

A wide variety of mammals populate the gorge, including badgers and fallow deer. The caves in the gorge provide a winter roost for greater horseshoe bats and lesser horseshoe bats. Birds that use the woodlands in the SSSI include buzzard, nuthatch, peregrine falcon, pied flycatcher, raven, tawny owl and the wood warbler.^[1]

Insects species found on the site include a dance fly (Hilara media) and a wasp (Omallus puncticollis), which are nationally rare; as well as uncommon butterflies: wood white, pearl-bordered fritillary and the white admiral.^[1]

References

1 2 3 4 "Upper Wye Gorge" (PDF). Natural England. 20 February 1989. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
↑ Forest of Dean District Local Plan Review, adopted November 2005, Appendix D 'Nature Conservation Site Designations Within the Forest of Dean District', Sites of Special Scientific Interest
↑ Forest of Dean District Local Plan Review, adopted November 2005, Appendix D 'Nature Conservation Site Designations Within the Forest of Dean District', Key Wildlife Sites
↑ "Upper Wye Gorge map (Wales)" (pdf). Countryside Council for Wales. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
↑ "Upper Wye Gorge map (England)". Natural England. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
↑ Ordnance Survey: Explorer map sheet OL14 Wye Valley & Forest of Dean ISBN 9780319240953
↑ "Upper Wye Gorge". Countryside Council for Wales. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
↑ Natural England information for Lady Park Wood NNR
↑ Countryside Council for Wales information for Lady Park Wood NNR
↑ Information on Wye Valley Woodlands/ Coetiroedd Dyffryn Gwy Special Area of Conservation designation
↑ Joint Nature Conservation Committee Listing of Special Areas of Conservation
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Upper Wye Gorge" (pdf). Countryside Council for Wales. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
↑ The Antiquarian. E.W. Allen. 1871. p. 164. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
↑ "King Arthur's Cave – The Doward". Wyenot.com. Retrieved 29 June 2012.

External links

Biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire

Summarised data for all sites (biological and geological)

Ashleworth Ham Astridge Wood Badgeworth Barnsley Warren Barton Bushes Bigsweir Woods Blaisdon Hall Bourton Down Box Farm Meadows Boxwell Brassey Brooks Head Grove Buckshraft Mine & Bradley Railway Tunnel Bull Cross, The Frith and Juniper Hill Bushley Muzzard, Brimpsfield Caerwood and Ashberry Goose House Chaceley Meadow Clarke's Pool Meadow Cleeve Common Cockleford Marsh Collinpark Wood Coombe Hill Canal Coombe Hill Cotswold Commons and Beechwoods Cotswold Water Park Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake Daneway Banks Dean Hall Coach House & Cellar Devil's Chapel Scowles Dingle Wood Dixton Wood Dymock Woods Edge Common Elmlea Meadows Frampton Pools Highbury Wood Hobbs Quarry Hornsleasow Roughs Hucclecote Meadows Innsworth Meadow Juniper Hill, Edgeworth Kempley Daffodil Meadow Kingscote and Horsley Woods Lark Wood Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common Lineover Wood Lower Woods Lower Wye Gorge May Hill Midger Minchinhampton Common Nagshead Old Bow and Old Ham Mines Old River Severn, Upper Lode Pennsylvania Fields, Sedbury Poor's Allotment Puckham Woods Range Farm Fields River Wye Rodborough Common Rough Bank, Miserden Salmonsbury Meadows Selsley Common Severn Estuary Severn Ham, Tewkesbury Shorn Cliff and Caswell Woods Slade Brook Soudley Ponds Speech House Oaks Stenders Quarry Stinchcombe Hill Strawberry Banks Swanpool Wood and Furnace Grove Swift's Hill Sylvan House Barn The Hudnalls The Malvern Hills Tudor Farm Bank Turvey's Piece Upper Severn Estuary Upham Meadow and Summer Leasow Upper Wye Gorge Walmore Common Westbury Brook Ironstone Mine Whelford Meadow Wigpool Ironstone Mine Wildmoorway Meadows Winson Meadows Woodchester Park Workman's Wood Wotton Hill Yarley Meadows

Neighbouring areas Avon Hereford and Worcester Oxfordshire Wiltshire

Geological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire

Summarised data for all sites (biological and geological)

Alderton Hill Quarry Bull Cross, The Frith and Juniper Hill Campden Tunnel Gravel Pit Cleeve Common Coaley Wood Quarries Crickley Hill and Barrow Wake Easter Park Farm Quarry Edgehills Quarry Foss Cross Quarry Garden Cliff Hampen Railway Cutting Haresfield Beacon Harford Railway Cutting Hobbs Quarry Hornsleasow Quarry Huntsman's Quarry Jackdaw Quarry Kemble Railway Cuttings Knap House Quarry, Birdlip Land Grove Quarry, Mitcheldean Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common Longhope Hill Lower Woods Lower Wye Gorge Lydney Cliff May Hill Meezy Hurst Minchinhampton Common New Park Quarry Nibley Knoll Notgrove Railway Cutting Oakenhill Railway Cutting Puddlebrook Quarry River Wye Robin's Wood Hill Quarry Rodborough Common Salmonsbury Meadows Scully Grove Quarry Severn Estuary Slade Brook Stenders Quarry Stony Furlong Railway Cutting Swift's Hill Upper Severn Estuary The Malvern Hills Purton Passage Selsley Common Upper Wye Gorge Veizey's Quarry Wainlode Cliff Wellacre Quarry Wood Green Quarry & Railway Cutting Wotton Hill

Neighbouring areas Avon Hereford and Worcester Oxfordshire Wiltshire

Biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gwent

Cleddon Bog Upper Wye Gorge

Neighbouring areas: Avon Brecknock Gloucestershire Mid & South Glamorgan

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