Habitat type: Woodland in a steep-sided river valley with water-filled quarry
Size of reserve: 8 hectares / 20 acres
OS map number: 104
Grid reference: SW 753 375
Best time to visit: Winter
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Directions
Turn off the A393 at the post office in Ponsanooth and follow this road for a few hundred yards. Access to the reserve is via a footpath on the right as you ascend the hill. Look for the reserve sign on the wall to the left of the access.
Access
Very limited parking in lanes near the site, so please be careful not to obstruct access routes. Tracks and paths run throughout the reserve; these can be muddy and in some places the surface can be wet and very slippery.
Characteristic wildlife of this reserve
The dipper is a land bird, with the appearance of a huge wren. It swims and dives because most of its food, such as insect larvae, f
reshwater snails and small fish, is found in the water. The dipper can stay underwater for about 30 seconds. Its nest is large and dome-shaped and can usually be found over running water. The dipper's beak is short and straight and its plumage is generally brown, although it sports a dashing white throat and a partial white breast.
Unlike three-cornered leek, the common and widespread alien, ramsons are rather unusual in West Cornwall. The smell of the plant lets us know that it is an onion, but the flowers, grouped like a cluster of white stars on top of a rather tall stem surrounded by two or three deep-green broad leaves, make this a most attractive woodland plant.
Other information
Kennall Vale Gunpowder Works was established in the early 19th Century and produced high quality gunpowder for the mining industry. Its remains, scattered throughout the reserve, include several mills and buildings and a complex system of leats; the Works became a Scheduled Monument in 1999.
