If you are lucky enough find yourself on the road that leads to Roskilly's, for lunch or a delicious ice cream, you will probably be driving through an area of "wild land" known as Main Dale, this is part of the Lizard National Nature Reserve managed by Natural England.

You will see the land is strewn with Gabro boulders known locally as crusairs, how these boulders got here is a matter of great debate and geologists argue amongst themselves that they are either the result of soil erosion around the boulders or they slid here during the last ice age.

Whatever the answer is to the mystery of them being here, you will agree that they make for a very dramatic landscape. Another site you may be lucky enough to see is a small number of Exmoor ponies grazing here, the grazing was introduced to the site in 2012 following the fencing of the boundary of the site and the installation of two cattle grids.

We are hoping that the reintroduction of grazing will benefit the flora and fauna here and also help to reduce the occurrence of wild fires.

If you wander across this site in spring and summer you may be lucky enough to find one of our rarer orchids, the lesser butterfly orchid or you may see a Marsh Fritillary butterfly in flight. If you fail to see either of these you will still be able to see four different types of heather growing here, the Cornish Heath, Bell Heather, Cross leaved Heath and Ling. And when they are in full flower in July/August they produce some wonderful colours.

 

 

Published: May 2013

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