Sweeney Fen

About the reserve

Water from the surrounding limestone hills seeps into the peat, making ideal ground conditions for several Shropshire rarities. Globeflower is found here, an Ice Age survivor at one of its most southerly points, clinging on in one or two wet places, its spherical flowers a soft, glowing yellow. In May the star-shaped flowers of bogbean appear, fringed petals opening white from dark pink buds. Thousands of fragrant orchids flower in early July; tall spikes of purple-pink, along with hundreds of dusky-petalled marsh helleborines, marsh orchids and wild angelica.

A footpath is marked out each summer so that people can enjoy the fen with minimal damage to its flowers.

Dragonflies, frogs and a rare, tiny, whorled snail called Vertigo lilljeborgi also thrive in these boggy conditions.

Hay from Sweeney Fen has been spread on several nearby fields in the hope that the seeds of some of its extraordinary plants will grow and flourish beyond the nature reserve. Cattle graze the marshes for several months of the year to prevent the rushes overgrowing the meadow. It is a small reserve and fragile, so please tread carefully and stick to the path. The fen is approached over a stone-slab bridge and can be wet underfoot. Please keep dogs under control.  

Directions: Approach Sweeney Fen via the lane signed to Sweeney Mountain off the A483 south of Oswestry or off the A495 just west of the Llynclys crossroads.