Prideaux Wood nature reserve

Habitat type: Woodland with disused quarries Size of Reserve: 26ha (64 acres) OS Map No. 107 Grid reference: SX 064 554 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:

From St Austell, take the A390 through St Blazey. Just before the railway crossing (opposite the garage), turn left. After about 0.25 mile (.33km), turn right. The entrance is a little way after this junction, on the right.

Access:

Limited parking in nearby lanes. Several tracks cross the reserve. The paths are uneven and can be very muddy. There are some steep inclines. Visitors are advised to stay on the designated paths and not climb over any fences as there are many mine shafts here.

Classification

Description:

A delightful woodland, about a quarter of which is ancient, but the rest was planted in the 1960s with commercial forestry trees. There are remains of mining operations. The management plan at Prideaux Wood is very gradually to remove the dominant conifers to provide space for native trees and flowers to establish. This change towards a more natural woodland must be very slow in order to protect the habitat for the very significant bat colonies that roost here.

Characteristic wildlife of this reserve:

The greater horseshoe bat is large, from head to tail up to 70mm, and weighing up to 35gm. Individuals have been known to live for 30 years - the oldest recorded for any European bat. The bats use the derelict mine shafts as hibernating roosts through the winter months and for breeding during the summer. These mammals are not common and this is one of only a few maternity roosts in the UK. The bats emerge at dusk in search of food. The horseshoe bat can be distinguished from other British bats by a broad u-shaped piece of skin on the face around the nostrils, which is part of their echo-location system. Their ears are wide apart and their fur is buff-brown and fluffy, although juveniles are greyish.

Other information:

The reserve was purchased in 1997 with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Very little of the reserve is undisturbed by mining processes, some of the activity dating back to Tudor times. Charcoal platforms are also to be found.

Cornwall Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves

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