About the reserve

The site lies between farmland to the north and a sandstone ridge to the south. The raised mire is set in a hollow and has grown over a small lake which would have been present shortly after the last ice age. The bog is now dominated by heather but various mire species still occur in wetter parts of the site.

The most striking feature on the site is a large brick chimney, part of what remains of a former coal mine that operated along the northern edge and under the moss. An old engine house ruin also stands on the northern edge of the site with former spoil heaps pushing out towards the mire. A band of trees skirt the southern and eastern edge of the site with old pine and oak woodland sweeping up the slopes out of the moss itself. The moss is composed of a deep layer of peat which has grown up over thousands of years. Past drainage and subsequent growth of birch on the site has dried the site out and the dense heather is partly a result of this.

The wetter parts of the site are still home to sphagnum mosses, sundew, cranberry, cross-leaved heath and cotton grasses and the large heath butterfly still breeds on the bog. The aromatic bog myrtle grows at various places, and the site is home to good numbers of common lizards, with adders also seen on occasion. Birds such as red grouse, meadow pipit and woodcock breed here and snipe are often seen. Buzzard and kestrel are frequently seen over the reserve. The site is managed in partnership with Ford and Etal Estates.