Habitat type: Grassland, woodland and heath with wildlife demonstration areas
Size of reserve: 6 hectares / 15 acres
OS map number: 105
Grid reference: SW 793 485 (car park)
Best time to visit: All year
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Directions
Take the B3284 from Truro and fork right (signposted to Perranporth) at the junction in Allet. Five Acres is immediately on the right.
Access
There is parking just inside the entrance or alternatively in the triangle between the B3284 and entrance to the nature reserve. There is a circular path which is suitable for wheelchair access which includes a pond platform and passing places. Allet Bog is separate to the main reserve and is accessed via a track leading down to the valley bottom, please ask a member of staff for details.
Characteristic wildlife of this reserve
Three species of shrews have been found here, common, water and pygmy.
Palmate newts have been found around the ponds at Five Acres. Their distinctive webbed feet give them their English name, palmate meaning 'shaped like a hand with the fingers spread out'.
Allet Bog forms part of Carrick Heaths SSSI. The rare plant dorset heath is found here and other plants associated with bogs such as pale butterwort and bog asphodel. The site is being gradually restored to increase the area of heathland by clearance of decades of scrub encroachment and grazing by Exmoor ponies.
Other information
Five Acres, opened in 1989 as the Trust’s headquarters, was left to us in a legacy by Dr George and Mrs Allsop. Dr Allsop was one of the Trust's co-founders.
An old pond which is now part of the bog garden demonstrates clearly why it is not wise to put plants and creatures from garden ponds into the wild. Three non-native species; water fern, Australian swamp stonecrop and parrot's feather, were accidentally introduced and eventually took over the pond.
