Bosvenning Common nature reserve

Habitat type: Heathland Size of Reserve: 16ha (39 acres) OS Map No. 102 Grid reference: SW 418 316 Best time to visit: Summer and early autumn - flowering heather and gorse
Cornwall Wildlife Trust encourages the use of environmentally friendly forms of transport wherever possible. Click on the locator map above to go to the National Cycle Network website and view an Ordnance Survey map of this reserve highlighting nearby cycle routes.

Directions:

Take the A3071 from Penzance. Turn left 0.5 miles (800m) beyond Newbridge (just after the school). Entry is via the public footpath 0.5 miles (800m) up this road.

Access:

Public rights of way cross the reserve; the path can be muddy and wet.

Classification

Description:

The reserve remained undisturbed for years. It consists of lowland western heath with three different species of wild heathers. The views are among the most spectacular in Penwith, over the downland towards Carn Brea and Camborne.

Characteristc wildlife of this reserve:

Bristle bent grass adds its golden haze to the heathland in autumn and combines with the gorse to give the reserve the colours so characteristic of Penwith's unique landscape.

Common dodder is a parasitic plant which looks like red string thrown on to the gorse; it is widespread, and in August supports a mass of small, pink flowers.

With its nondescript plumage of streaked brown topside and pale underparts, the meadow pipit can be difficult to see. However, once it sings it comes into its own, performing what is often known as the parachuting display. The male flutters steeply upwards and then descends slowly to the ground, singing all the while, with its wings inclined upward and tail spread.

In summer, the western heath is a patchwork of yellow gorse and pink and purple heather. There are three different heathers here: the true heather, or ling, has many tortuously branched and tangled stems, with tiny, flat-lying triangular leaves and loose spikes of pinky-purple flowers. Bell heather grows in the driest area; the needle-like, dark-green leaves are in fact tightly rolled and the crimson-purple flowers are bell-shaped. Cross-leaved heather is similar, but with paler rose-pink flowers and greyish leaves in groups of four. It favours wetter areas.

Other information:

A Bronze Age cairn extends a line of three along the east to west ridge.

The site is likely to have been used as summer pasture from prehistoric times to the medieval period while, from more recent times, tinners’ pits and quarrying complexes can be found.

Cornwall Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves

List of reserves ... Armstrong Woods Bakers Pit Beales Meadow Bissoe Valley Bosvenning Common Cabilla and Redrice Woods Caer Brân Carn Moor Chûn Downs Churchtown Farm Chyverton Devichoys Wood Downhill Meadow Fal-Ruan Estuary Five Acres Fox Corner Greena Moor Halbullock Hawkes Wood Helman Tor Kemyel Crease Kennall Vale Lanvean Bottoms Loggan's Moor Loveny Lower Lewdon Luckett Maer Lake Nansmellyn Marsh North Predannack Downs Park Hoskyn Pendarves Wood Penlee Battery Phillips's Point Priddacombe Downs Prideaux Wood Quoit Heathland Redlake Cottage Meadows Ropehaven Cliffs Rosenannon Downs St Erth Pits St George's Island Swanvale Sylvia's Meadow Tamar Estuary Tincombe Trebarwith Tresayes Tywardreath Marsh Upton Meadow Upton Towans Ventongimps Moor Welcombe & Marsland Windmill Farm

Introduction - Key to symbols - Gallery - Google Earth
Reserves Handbook

Nature reserves ... Introduction List of reserves Key to symbols Management Collecting Volunteering PARC diary SEARCH . . . . . . . . .