Lord's Lot Bog

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.