Muckton Wood
Parish: Muckton
OS: 122 • GR: TF 382810 • Map ref: 66
16.70 hectares (41.20acres) • Freehold 1983
Habitat type: Woodland
Location and Access
The wood is reached on foot by a 250-m access track, which leaves the Muckton-Belleau road about 1 km (0.6 miles) south of the village of Muckton at grid reference TF 381807. There is limited parking space on the road verge. Visitors are requested to keep to the rides and to go quietly.
Description and Management
This is an ancient semi-natural woodland on boulder clay soil on the eastern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds. Oak and ash are the dominant trees with abundant field maple, aspen on the wood margins and alder in the wetter areas. The understorey is dense in places with some neglected hazel coppice, hawthorn, blackthorn and honeysuckle. Bramble tends to dominate the ground flora, but there are many woodland flowers, including wood anemone, woodruff, moschatel, bluebell, wood-sorrel and an abundance of herb-Paris. Early-purple orchid, broad-leaved helleborine and butterfly orchid are also to be seen, along with both the soft- and hard-shield ferns. The wood is attractive to many warblers, and breeding birds include great spotted woodpecker, treecreeper and tree sparrow.
When purchased in 1983, the wood was much neglected with a good deal of overstood hazel coppice and overgrown rides. Management so far has involved ride and ditch clearance, and bridge and pond construction. Traditional coppice-with-standards management has been re-established in parts of the wood.
Supported by the
Heritage Lottery Fund
