Kemyel Crease nature reserve

Habitat type: Woodland Size of Reserve: 2ha (6 acres) OS Map No. 102 Grid reference: SW 460 243 (where coast path enters from the north) Best time to visit: All year
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:

On foot only. It is a walk of 1 mile (1.5km) from where the coastal path leaves the road south of Mousehole.

Access:

The SW Coast Path runs through the reserve, but the site is largely inaccessible. The path can be uneven and stout footwear is recommended.

Classification

Description:

This reserve is a conifer plantation sloping down to the sea; a small, sheltered woodland in a windswept area. The site is split in two by the SW Coast Path which meanders along the cliffside, affording visitors a splendid view across Mount’s Bay.

Wildlife:

Monterey pine, although not a native species, was widely planted as a 'shelter' tree, due to its rapid growth and salt tolerance. Tall, up to 20m, and with widespread boughs, its dark green needles and rutted bark make it a very distinctive part of the local scene.

Monterey cypress is a beautiful tree with a lemon scent. Another fast-growing evergreen, the cypress was also originally introduced here as a windbreak. Triangular in shape when young, this species spreads as it ages.

Kemyel Crease is rich in fungi and, in summer and autumn, visitors may see the unusual earth star fungus. It is pale brown but darkens with age, the outer layer peeling back to form the distinctive star-shaped pattern on the ground.

Other information:

Mrs K M Leach & Leach Fourteenth Trust gave us a donation which enabled the purchase of this reserve in 1974.

The area was formerly used for bulb and potato growing and contains over 100 small fields known as quillets.

As well as the conifers, fuchsia and hydrangea were planted to provide windbreaks, and are still much in evidence.

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

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