Tylcau Hill (Floss Brand)
Location
Know before you go
Dogs
When to visit
Opening times
All year roundBest time to visit
May to SeptemberAbout the reserve
Mountain pansies bloom in the higher slopes with purple moor-grass, rushes and sedges thriving in the wet grassland known as rhôs pasture.
Patches of adder's-tongue fern are a welcome sight as these are considered a good indicator species of ancient meadows and are found alongside the gentle shivering quaking grass and devil's bit scabious.
The small pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly loves the wetter fields, swooping close to the ground, while in late spring the green hairstreak butterfly perches with its wings closed on the hawthorn twigs. If you want to hear the cuckoo, then a visit in spring is a must! The undualting call of the curlew can also be heard. Old hedgerows, ditches and patches of old scrub provide important breeding habitats for the yellowhammer, pied flycatcher, meadow and tree pipit, redstart and linnet.
The little Camddŵr brook seems very clean with lots of invertebrate activity. Bullheads loiter under stones and otter spraints have been seen on several occasions. Common lizards, frogs and toads all make their home here. On the south-west facing fields known as "ffridd" there's a lovely mix of hawthorn, rowan and crab apple trees.