Red Moor (nature reserve)

The 89-hectare (220-acre) SSSI, notified in 1979, is located mainly within Lanlivery civil parish, 2 miles (3.2 km) north-west of the town of Lostwithiel. The similarly named hamlet of Redmoor is directly east of the reserve.[1][2]

The nature reserve is owned by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust/Cornwall Trust for Nature.[3]

The river coursing out of the north of the site, a tributary of the River Par, was found to flow through tin-bearing gravels by the early mediaeval period.[4] This part of Red Moor was mined for loose tin until the end of the 19th century[5] and the oxidised metal is thought to give the moor its descriptive name.[4]

This SSSI used to belong to the Red Moor–Breney Common SSSI, the two sites having split in the 1986 revision where both sites were expanded.[5] It is adjacent to Helman Tor nature reserve.

There are two main habitat types within the site; the dry dwarf-shrub heath to the north and wetter marshy grassland, wetland heath and bog-land in the low-lying basin to the south.[5] The bog contains a variety of Sphagnum peat mosses - that disperse their spores from June to August[3] - bog asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum), cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum), and marsh cinquefoil (Potentilla palustris). Other flora on the site include the climbing corydalis (Ceratocapnos claviculata) and the royal fern (Osmunda regalis).[5]

On the site can be found 13 species of dragonfly and damselfly, which include the scarce blue-tailed damselfly, a nationally rare species. Aquatic beetles are also present on the moor, the very scarce Hydrochus nitidicollis being one, as well as 2 uncommon spiders.[5]

Birds recorded on the site include the willow tit, tree pipit, European nightjar and the Eurasian sparrowhawk.[5]