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Llangollen Canal - Whixall Moss National Nature Reserve, Bettisfield Moss and Fenn's Moss

The Llangollen Canal was cut through the Whixall, Bettisfield and Fenn's Mosses during the first years of the 1800s, and up until steel sheet piling was installed in the 1960's the canal was under constant subsidence due to the drainage of the surrounding peat. Today over 6,000 boats a year cruise past the Mosses, with very few of the boaters actually stopping to walk the Mosses Trails.

Whixall Moss National Nature Reserve (NNR), Bettisfield Moss and Fenn's Moss adjacent to Llangollen Canal on the England / Wales border (MAP) are an English Nature; Countryside Council for Wales and British Waterways management partnership area and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and European Special Area of Conservation.

With car parking at Morris's (Lift) Bridge No.45 - MAP and Roundhorn Bridge No.44 - MAP

The whole area is about 948 ha / 2342 acres and the third largest raised bog in Britain. With three marked trails (Orange 2.8km / 1.75 miles; Green 2.4km / 1.5 miles and purple 3.6 km / 2.25 miles) with historic features and suggested sightings of wildlife including Adder; Raft Spider ; Curlew and more.

When we visited in early June (2007) we walked the trails and saw nesting Terns, Cuckoo, Buzzards, Kestrel, Bullfinches and many other more common birds - plenty of insect life including the four-spotted chaser (dragonfly), butterflies galore and a huge variety of plant life.

Since prehistory Sphagnum moss and other plant material remains have built up to create an area of raised peat almost 12 metres deep at its highest point. The peat has formed in the stagnant boggy water captured in a glacial clay and sand valley.

Pollen comparisons on the peat have dated areas of the combines Mosses to at least 10,000 years and the removal of peat for use as fuel, horticultural use, agricultural use including fodder and building material in the area can be traced back to the time when the bog was managed by draining by man.

The Fenn's Moss was used as a World War One rifle practice range and yielded peat that was milled and bailed there from the late 1930s until 1963 when rail communication links were cut. Today you can see the narrow guage railway line and the 'restored' commercial peat cuttings, a haven for wildlife. The cotton sedge and bog moss are recovering the area in line with the regularly spaced ditches.

Whixall Moss still shows signs of the results of being 'enclosed' as fields under the 1823 Enclosure Act, an Act of Parliament, when the peat bog was drained fully to create the fields. Cattle still graze the southernmost areas, but the grass is not premium grassland. Two homesteads built mainly from the local peat (blocks) stood close to the eastern extremities until the 1940s.

Bettisfield Moss is on the south bank of the Llangollen Canal straddling the Wales / England Border with no public access. Looking over the Bettisfield Moss you are likely to see hovering Kestrel or a soaring Buzzard above the carr woodland of the canal bank comprising of Alder; Elder; Ash; Sallow; Hawthorn and Wych Elm. The rain-water fed moss is dotted with Birch and (stunted) Pine. Look out for Kingfishers here!

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