The Great Wood

In the appropriately named ‘Great Wood’ you can experience walking amongst literally hundreds of huge ancient trees. Many of these giants were mere saplings during the English civil-war, and have stood for hundreds of years since.

The Great Wood, like much of Gregynog’s woodland is a remnant of a past hunting estate, a deer-park which has survived being felled and remains today as open parkland or wood-pasture.

Throughout Britain, and even more-so on the continent, the extent of wood-pasture has been greatly reduced through neglect, by clearance for agriculture or by replanting with commercial softwoods and hardwoods.

Wood-pastures with old trees are very important for nature conservation, because there has been a long continuity of woodland cover and the trees themselves provide habitat for rare plants and animals that have very special requirements.

This site is of national importance for its array of rare and specialist lichens growing on cracked-up rough bark provided by old gnarled oaks, and for specialist insects, dependent on these majestic trees and the supply of rotting dead wood.

For this reason it is afforded special protection as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).