Nearest town: Carnforth
Grid reference: SD 546 705, Landranger 97, Explorer OL7

The reserve occupies an area not much bigger than a football pitch. The site is an example of a 'Schwingmoor', a floating raft of Sphagnum mosses in a basin mire, a nationally rare habitat. Lord's Lot Bog has always been an area of wetland but it is believed that, in Victorian times, the dam was built to create a boating or shooting pond.

Nature has created an amazing and unusual wildlife habitat; this acid Sphagnum (bog moss) bog is just a stage in the eventual change to woodland. You can clearly see the effect the ground water level has on the communities of plants from open water to drier woodland. Although containing no nationally rare plants it has all the typical species and some that are rare in Lancashire.

As you walk from the forestry tracks you will pass through first conifer then Birch woodland (both Silver and Downy Birch) with occasional Rowan, Holly and Oak. As the ground becomes wetter the ground cover of Bilberry and Cross-leaved Heath with some Wood Sorrel in places becomes moss-dominated. Polytrichum moss forms hummocks above the carpet of Sphagnum. Look for the impressive bracket fungi on the dead or dying birch stumps.The bog itself is quite a hazard as it is a floating raft of Sphagnum and Common Cotton Grass. It is well worth a visit at any time of the year but particularly in June when the white cotton-like flower heads cover the bog. At this time also you may find the delicate trailing Cranberry with its pink flowers and red berries in autumn. It is a particularly good site for some locally scarce dragonflies and for Green Hairstreak butterflies. Outside the reserve, the Forestry Commission woodland is also interesting for its variety of trees and for its moths and fungi.

Management
Such an unusual, fragile habitat is worth maintaining in its present stage of succession and the Trust is closely monitoring vegetation changes. Photographic monitoring is used to record the extent and size of pine and birch seedlings on the bog. Decisions are then made as to whether these need to be removed.

For further information contact:

Reuben Neville
Heysham Reserves Manager

tel: 07979 652138
email: rneville@lancswt.org.uk

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Location
Within Forestry Commission woodland known as Lord's Lot Wood, north- east of Over Kellet, on the minor road turning northwards towards Borwick from the B6254, Carnforth to Kirkby Lonsdale road. No practicable public transport. Cars can be parked in the layby by the Forestry Commission entrance at SD 547710, although the reserve is best approached from the track leading South-West of the minor road, just north of another layby at SD 549707.

Cycle Route

Access
The woodland is open to the public at all times, so that no permit is required to visit the reserve. The reserve boundary is not marked on the ground. Visitors must be warned that the Sphagnum raft floats on deep water. It is dangerous to venture out onto the Sphagnum, which could also be damaged by trampling. The bog can be viewed best from the birch scrub along the eastern side. Please do not use the dam as a footpath - it is particularly dangerous.

Status
This 1.2 hectare Wildlife Site (Lancashire Biological Heritage Site) is owned by the Forestry Commission.

Lord's Lot Bog