Mendip NNR

Simon Cooter

Description

The Mendip National Nature Reserve (NNR) is a multi-site NNR covering over 1,400 hectares of land on 31 sites; between Brean Down by Weston-Super-Mare, across the south-facing grasslands and woodlands of the Mendip Hills National Landscape, to the eastern side of Wells. It includes Ebbor Gorge and Rodney Stoke as well as iconic sites such as Cheddar Gorge and Crook Peak.

Habitats

The Mendip NNR is most important for its large stretches of limestone grasslands, ancient wooded ravines, and stunning geology.

Calcareous grassland

Carline thistle on Crook Peak – Simon Cooter

The south facing limestone slopes of the Mendips are particularly important for their calcareous grasslands. Shallow soils on steep slopes, such as at Crook Peak, have a typical short sward of sheep’s fescue, rock rose, cudweed and carline thistle but also feature rarities such as Somerset grass and honewort. Draycott Sleights boasts over 200 recorded grassland plants including pale flax, spring cinquefoil and autumn gentian.

Where there are deeper soils, there are taller grasses with plants such as salad burnet and fairy flax.

Acid grassland and limestone heath

In some areas, such as at Bubwith Acres, more acidic soils have developed and here common and bell heather and western gorse can be found, along with acid grassland species such as tormentil, heath bedstraw, harebell and thyme-leaved milkwort.

At Lotts Grassland the limestone heath has lots of purple moor-grass, common and cross-leaved heath, devil’s-bit scabious and lousewort.

Calaminarian grassland

These are nutrient poor grasslands with high levels of heavy metals and are usually associated with past mining activity. They have sparse plant growth but some specially tolerant plants such as alpine pennycress, spring sandwort, dwarf mouse-ear and hoary cinquefoil can be found. Blackmoor, GB Gruffy and Ubley Warren are all good examples of this habitat.

Mixed broadleaf woodland

Ebbor Gorge – Simon Cooter

Many of the Mendip woodlands are dominated by ash and small-leaved lime, but also contain oak, wych elm, field maple, whitebeam, beach, hornbeam and hazel. The wayfaring tree and wild service tree can also be found in places.

Scrub

Brean Down – Simon Cooter

Scattered across the grasslands can be found areas of hawthorn and western gorse bushes often with bracken. The scrub helps protect some plants such as purple gromwell from grazing and also gives protection to other creatures such as nesting birds and adders.

Hay meadow

Neutral grassland also occurs in some of the extended NNR such as Cooks Field where autumn ladies-tresses, common knapweed and yellow rattle typically grow.

Inland cliffs/rocky outcrops/scree slopess

Cheddar Gorge – Simon Cooter

The most notable cliffs can be found in Cheddar Gorge, however there are rock outcrops right across the Mendip Hills. Grazing animals have not been able to access these cliffs so these rock outcrops have developed their own flora on the thin calcareous soils. This includes the critically endangered Cheddar whitebeam, which only grows in the Cheddar Gorge. Only recognised as a distinct species in 2009 it is limited to 22 individual trees.

Wet Flushes and springs

Where springs emerge on the slopes, like at Tor Hole Fields, they can create wet flushes, where plants such as ragged robin, lousewort and bog pimpernel can be found. Sometimes the flushes have developed into small areas of wet woodland.

Key species

Cheddar pink

The cheddar pink is the flagship species of the south facing calcareous grasslands. Other typical species include early-purple orchid, common rockrose, dropwort, marjoram and salad burnet.

Notable plants include the Somerset hair-grass, white rock rose (whose only sites in the UK are Brean Down and Purn Hill), honewort and purple gromwell.

A range of other orchid species can be found in different parts of this expansive NNR including frog orchid, bee orchid, autumn ladies tresses, green-winged orchid and broad-leaved helleborine.

Dormouse

Dormice thrive in the Mendip woodlands because there is are a wide range of tree species and warm south facing slopes.

Adder

Somerset is one of the primary strongholds in the UK for this declining species. The Mendips, along with Exmoor, are the two main areas for adders in the country. The mosaic of grass and scrub on south facing slopes provides the ideal conditions for these snakes to thrive.

Bats

Both greater and lesser horseshoe bats hibernate in caves in Ebbor Gorge, while noctule and pipistrelle bats roost in the woods.

Breeding birds

Raven and peregrine frequent the cliffs and steep slopes. Skylark and stonechat are often heard on the grasslands and nearby scrub, and the woodlands are home to spotted flycatcher, redstart and tree pipit.

Lower plants

Ebbor Gorge is particularly noted for its ferns and bryophytes. Over 250 species of lower plant have been recorded on the site, including three nationally scarce mosses; Mackay’s pouncewort moss (which looks like black graffiti on the light rock of the gorge), canary thread-moss and tiny feather-moss.

Woodland plants

Along with typical woodland plants such as bluebell the calcareous soils benefit other species such as wood anemone, columbine, nettle-leaved bellflower, meadow saffron, herb paris, spurge laurel and the rare purple gromwell.

Butterflies and other insects

The Mendips are an exceptional area for butterflies with some sites having recorded over 30 species. Marbled white, chalkhill blue, small blue, grayling and brown argus are present on the limestone grassland while silver washed fritillary, purple hairstreak and white-letter hairstreak can be found in some of the woodlands. Grizzled Skipper and Dingy Skipper can be seen during spring, whilst some of the fritillaries like the small pearl-bordered and dark green fritillary butterflies fly later in the summer.

The Mendips are also known for a variety of other invertebrates, including one of its champion species the black oil beetle. This large black beetle has an interesting life cycle and is a parasite on solitary bees that use the flower rich grasslands in this area.

Geology

The rich geological landscape ranges from Devonian to Jurassic in a relatively small area. Ebbor Gorge is particularly known for the sequence of deposits dating from the last ice age and there is evidence of the animals that lived during that period such as spotted hyaena, woolly rhino and mammoth, as well as Neanderthal man.