About the reserve

This is an ancient semi-natural woodland on boulder clay soil on the eastern edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds. Oak and ash are the dominant trees with abundant field maple, aspen on the wood margins and alder in the wetter areas.

The understorey is dense in places with some neglected hazel coppice, hawthorn, blackthorn and honeysuckle. Bramble tends to dominate the ground flora, but there are many woodland flowers, including wood anemone, woodruff, moschatel, bluebell, wood-sorrel and an abundance of herb-Paris. Early-purple orchid, broad-leaved helleborine and butterfly orchid are also to be seen, along with both the soft and hard-shield ferns. The wood is attractive to many warblers, and breeding birds include great spotted woodpecker, treecreeper and tree sparrow.

When purchased in 1983, the wood was much neglected with a good deal of overstood hazel coppice and overgrown rides. Management so far has involved ride and ditch clearance, and bridge and pond construction. Traditional coppice-with-standards management has been re-established in parts of the wood.

Nearest postcode LN11 8NU. Please note - postcodes are for the nearest registered address as we are unable to get postcodes for nature reserves.

Location information

Muckton Wood location PDF

The wood is reached on foot by a 250m access track, which leaves the Muckton-Belleau road about 1 km (0.6 miles) south of Muckton at grid reference TF 381807.

What3Words

Parking ///mammal.sketching.shipwreck

Entrance ///amphibian.smirking.asset