This series of geocaches has been placed with the approval and permission of the Senior Reserve Manager, Somerset National Nature Reserves (Natural England).
Please note that dogs are not allowed on the main reserve (Shapwick Heath geocaches #1 to #14 inclusive).
Shapwick Heath wetland reserve covers over 500 hectares at the heart of the Somerset Levels and Moors. Habitats include lush green wildflower meadows; still, dark ditches; damp, secretive fens, shady, wet fern woods and open water, fringed with rustling reed beds
Until around 4,500 BC, the sea covered Shapwick Heath. When it gradually began to retreat, reed beds, followed by a mixture of sedge and fen woodlands, colonised the drying marshes. Then, as the old vegetation died and decayed, thick seams of peat were formed.
The Romans were the first to harvest peat to burn as fuel. Between April and September, when the ground was at its driest, men would cut the peat by hand, while women and children would stack the turfs to dry, before loading them onto carts or flat-bottomed boats. The peat was cut this way for hundreds of years until the 1940s, when coal became more popular. In the 1960s, peat was removed by huge machines for horticultural use, but this stopped in the 1990s. Today, these former peat pits have been transformed into a landscape of open lakes, reed beds, fens and wet woodland, and have become a hugely important area for nature conservation.
Around 6,000 years ago, Neolithic people lived on the higher, dry ground around the heath, and built wooden trackways to cross the wetlands. Large parts of the Neolithic ‘Sweet Track’, the oldest man-made routeway in Britain, still exist on the reserve, preserved beneath the wet peat. This remarkable timber track was built around 3,806 BC to cross 2km (1.2 miles) of reed swamp that separated Meare Island from the Polden Hills. Many amazing Neolithic artefacts have since been found on the heath, including pots of hazelnuts, a child’s toy tomahawk, and an extraordinary polished jadeite axe from the Alps. Many are now on display at Taunton Castle Museum. You will be walking along a replica of the Sweet Track to get there!
Discovering all of the geocaches in this series will show you the diversity of flora and fauna across the reserve.
In this instance you are looking for a clear 50ml screw top sample tube containing only the log. Please ensure that the top is not cross-threaded when replacing in order to keep the contents dry. Thanks!
Any problems with missing or damaged containers, logs etc, please contact me via the geocaching website as soon as possible in order that this series remains in good condition.