Only 8 of us braved the evening sunshine and gentle breezes for the Walk Around Bartinney Reserve on 23 June 2025. We were so pleased we did! Hugh’s photos below show the wide open views were at their best.
Nick Marriott, Area Reserves Manager, CWT, is an excellent guide, there is nothing like having an expert to listen to and question when visiting sites, even when you think you know that place already.
Bartinney Nature Reserve, is 250 acres and is owned by Cornwall Wildlife Trust. The land has been acquired in parcels, the first fields being potato fields looking towards Caer Bran, bought in 1998, further land on the Chapel Carn Brea side was bought in 2013, more in 2019, in 2020 Carn Glaze was added and in 2022 further fields which meant the CWT owned the entire hill. It is open access and crossed by many foot paths and is easily accessible from Grumbla or from Chapel Carn Brea side where there is parking.
The different types of previous use means that different management is required. Restoring land that has been agriculturally improved for crops, like the old potato fields that slope to the Carn Euny track, takes time. The stony fields were not suitable for a hay cut to remove nutrients so they have been Summer grazed by the cattle, a slower process in removing nitrogen from the soil but, beneficial in the treading in of seeds by the roaming animals. The cows wrap their tongues around the vegetation and pull it up, they are not picky eaters. Over the next decade the hill will become flower rich acid grassland, with heathers and louseworts., hawthorns and blocks of gorse and some bramble patches, important for nesting birds. Skylarks, stonechats, meadow pippets and other bird numbers will increase as the habitat will improve to support them. Cuckoo numbers have been good this summer, Bartinney is a bit of a hot spot for them. Their favoured nest is that of the Willow Pipit but a Dunnock’s will suffice. Cuckoos are one of the few birds that feed on the hairy Drinker Moth caterpillars, bashing them to split their skin and consuming their innards.
Hay cuts are taken from the end of July, into August, from parts of the reserve, this later cut allows the seeds from the grasses and wild flowers to drop and settle in situ. The cut is delayed until September for the meadows that slope towards Chapel Carn Brea. Here is a key site for the Tormentil Mining Bee so their food plant is left for as long as possible. The bees nest in ground holes and since the fire has burned bare some Cornish Hedges the bees have found these to be ideal nesting spots. Even rarer is the Tormentil Nomad Bee, a parasitic cuckoo bee that preys on the Tormentil Mining Bee. They are in their tens at the site which sounds precarious but is a rare density. Another post-fire revealing was the number of mine shafts across parts of Bartinney and qualified climbers safely explored the shafts which are likely roosts for bats. The shafts have been fenced and are now grown over again.
Nick showed us that Ribwort Plantain and Birdsfoot Trefoil are present in every mouthful of grass grazed and as these plants are natural wormers the grazier has agreed not to chemically treat his cattle and this has lead to Bartinney having an amazing number of species of Dung Beatles, I think it was 16 (forgot to note that). identified by an expert from the Scarab Trust investigating the cow dung over several intense sessions. Choughs love the beetle larva, as do wheatears and bats.
The gorse and heather heathland is managed by brush cutting in rotated annual sections during the winter months. This increases the variety of habitat and allows more plants to thrive and the heather and gorse to rejuvenate. The three heather types, Ling, Cross Leaved Heath and Bell Heather are wonderfully abundant at the ‘castle’ on top of Bartinney. If you visit the archived PLP web site and check out Artists Impressions you can see what the structures were, a gathering spot, not any thing to do with attack or defence. Who wouldn’t want to be up on top of the hill at special times of the year, having a BBQ? No telly back then!
We admired the Penwith Gates through the reserve and when you visit look out for butterflies, Greylings, Small Heaths and plenty of Walls have been seen.
Thank you again to Nick for all the interesting information shared and for the work you and your team do for wildlife. Please send us news of anything our group might be able to help with.
Further Sancreed Parish NAG info in a couple of weeks. Please, if anyone has an idea, activity or visit to suggest, do get in touch.
