Cors Goch Llanllwch National Nature Reserve

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Overview

Cors Goch Llanllwch NNR, near Carmarthen, is one of the few remaining large raised bogs in Wales, home to some of the special plants and creatures which depend on this rare habitat. Typical plants include marsh cinquefoil, bog myrtle, bog asphodel, royal fern, narrow buckler fern and white beak sedge. Both the carnivorous round-leaved and oblong-leaved sundews are also found here. A rare inhabitant of the bog is the black bog ant, which is found in only one other place in Wales. This ant makes its small conical-shaped nest for up to 1,000 workers from sphagnum moss and grasses, including purple moor grass. The rare small red damselfly and the black darter dragonfly are present on the reserve, as are bush crickets and the marsh fritillary butterfly. Lowland raised mires such as Cors Goch Llanllwch attract many bird species including common teal, curlew and water rail.

Location

Llanbedrgoch

About the area

Some of the oldest rocks in Britain form the 125-mile coastline of the 85 square mile Anglesey Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which includes Holy Island with its busy port of Holyhead, the terminus for the Dublin ferry. The terrain inland is mainly a fertile plateau worn flat by the action of the sea, with low ridges and shallow valleys, while the sheer limestone cliffs of the east coast and on the north coast at Holyhead Mountain represent some of the most spectacular sea cliffs in Britain.