Correl Glen/Lough Navar Forest, Co. Fermanagh (v.c. H33)

Saturday 7 September

Leaders: Robert Northridge, Jen Farrar.

This field trip will visit the Correl Glen, one of the best temperate rain forests in the North of Ireland where we will see both Tunbridge and Wilson’s Filmy-ferns (Hymenophyllum tunbrigense and H. wilsonii), Hay-scented Buckler-fern (Dryopteris aemula) and oak trees covered in mosses and Polypody ferns. We will then visit some north facing sandstone scarps in Lough Navar Forest where we will see Shade Horsetail (Equisetum pratense), One-sided Wintergreen (Orthilia secunda), Green Spleenwort (Asplenium viride), Brittle Bladder-fern (Cystopteris fragilis) and Blue Moor-grass (Sesleria caerulea), a speciality of western Ireland and the Yorkshire Dales. We should also come across Cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) and Lesser Twayblade (Neottia/Listera cordata).

This field trip is suitable for improver and experienced botanists who are relatively fit and agile and, due to the sensitive nature of the habitat, is limited to ten people.

Meet at the car park at the entrance to Lough Navar Forest Park (GR H074547) at 10.30. We should finish by 4.00.

Bring packed lunches and be prepared for wet weather, steep slopes and very rough ground.

There are no toilets at the site.

Leader: Robert Northridge, BSBI Vice-county Recorder for Fermanagh. (robhannort@aol.com and 07734390289)