Consisting of four separate acquisitions
forming contiguous woodland the Millook Valley (Trebarfoote, Tamps
and Landy, Trengayor Copse and Crannow Coombe and Lundy Woods)
occupies a large proportion of the valley that runs generally north
- south from the A39 near Wainhouse Corner to the hamlet of
Millook. Lying mainly on the western slopes of the valley but with
Trebarfoote on the eastern side the wood is generally steeply
sloping. It stretches from the higher drier slopes adjacent to
agricultural land down to the wetter valley bottoms where streams
flow down to the sea. Soils are generally rich loams over shellat
on the slopes with increasing rooting depth towards the lower edges
and wetter alluvial soils in the flatter bottoms adjacent to the
streams. The wood comprises of predominantly Oak, much of which is
stored coppice with a low proportion of Ash and Sycamore. On the
mid to upper slopes the wood often changes to a more sycamore,
thorn mixture and above these lie smaller areas of open ground
colonised with bracken, bramble and gorse. Most of the valley is
representative of ASNW but only woodland along the stream corridor
and areas of Trebarfoote Wood are designated as Ancient Wood. There
is a small floristically rich meadow located centrally within
Trebarfoote Wood and areas of the wood are conservationally
valuable in relation to lower plants and lichens with healthy
populations of Lobaria, String of Sausages lichen. Broadleaved
Helleborine and Birds Nest Orchid are reported to be present in the
ground flora, otters are known to frequent the water courses and
various important species of bat have been recorded foraging in the
wood and meadow. Due to its sheltered deep coastal valley location
its contribution to the landscape is only appreciated from adjacent
headlands and high ground, but the whole valley, which includes
other privately owned wood, offers one of the largest areas of
broadleaf woodland and probably the largest area of ASNW in the
surrounding area. The areas of Trebarfoote Wood surrounding this
meadow were historically open field with clumps of trees/hedgerow
trees throughout and from 1870s to when the Trust took over the
site had a history of grazing by stock. This grazing reduced to a
sufficiently low intensity to allow the current woodland to
naturally regenerate from the original trees. A number of large
mature beech indicate the line of a large old hedgerow in Trengayor
the wood. Management and public access is provided by the 4 public
footpaths that cross the site, and a track to the private dwelling
in the centre of the valley allows vehicular access to a fairly
'central' point in the wood. These paths fulfil the requirements of
the regular local and occasional non-local visitor and therefore
there is very little need to enhance the amenity values beyond what
is present. Due to its undisturbed history and location in a
sparsely populated area of the north Cornish coast it offers
visitors a sense of stepping back in time. Public access in itself
does not therefore qualify as a key feature.
Placed with the permission of
the Woodland Trust