Ropehaven Cliffs nature reserve

Habitat type: Woodland Size of Reserve: 20ha (50 acres) OS Map No. 107 Grid reference: SX 033 489 (entrance to centre of reserve at Trenarren) 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 the A390, heading east through St Austell, pass Asda on your right and head up the hill. Near the brow, turn right towards the hospital. Just after the hospital, at a junction where the road bears left, carry straight on for 1.5 miles (2.5km), then turn left towards Trenarren. Access is via a track forking off to the left just before reaching Trenarren.

Access:

Easy parking, just before Trenarren. The SW Coast Path crosses the upper side of the reserve and a path - which is uneven and can be muddy - drops down to Ropehaven Steps. The majority of the cliffs are inaccessible.

Classification

Description:

The cliffs - among the oldest sedimentary rocks exposed in the south-west - are extremely steep in places and prone to slippage. The reserve stretches from the high tide line to the coastal path and has a range of habitats, including an extensive coastal woodland.

Characteristic wildlife of this reserve:

The fulmar is actually a large petrel, but it is similar in size and colour to herring gulls, with grey backs, wings and tail and white head and underparts. They visit land only to nest in colonies - where any intruders are likely to be hit by a foul-smelling spit! Fulmars use little nesting material, laying their eggs on rocky cliff ledges.

House martins feed high above the cliffs; their aerial manoeuvres are breathtaking as they chase insects, then fly straight at the cliff to disappear into their nests at astonishing speed. House martins are distinguished from swallows by their white rump, white throat and shorter, forked tail.

Fossils contained in the rocks tell us that 400 million years ago Ropehaven lay beneath deepening tropical seas. The sea bed was home to corals, sea lilies, shellfish and primitive fish and squid.

Other information:

Several interesting geological features are in the reserve, including old slate workings, and thin bands of limestone - an uncommon rock in Cornwall.

This reserve was purchased in 1986 with the help of a grant from the World Wildlife Fund.

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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