This is a pleasant and interesting linear walk along an abandoned railway. The site broadens at Copthall Old Common and then narrows again to follow a green lane. The habitats on the site include a mixture of re-grown woodland, scrub and rough grassland as well as a small pond on the common and hedgebanks by the lane.
Local Wildlife Site
Accessible Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation
Copthall Railway Walk and Copthall Old Common
Borough: Barnet
Grade: Borough Grade II
Access: Free public access (all/most of site)
Area: 9.23 ha
Description
Wildlife
In the mix of scrub and woodland, the grassland on the walk is mostly dominated by false oat-grass, with a reasonable diversity of wild flowers, including burnet-saxifrage, perforate St John's-wort and tufted vetch. The woodland is all comparatively recent in origin, and is variously dominated by sycamore, oak and silver birch. There are some older oaks on Copthall Old Common and the pond contains yellow iris and water-starwort. To the south of the common, there are some fine old oaks in the hedgebanks by the green lane. Bluebells grow in the hedge bottoms. The varied habitats on the site support a good range of common birds, including blackcap, chiffchaff and goldfinch. Slow-worms also occur, and a good range of invertebrates include the scarce and declining glow-worm at one of few known London sites.Facilities
No information available
View of Copthall Old Railway Walk © Jim Rea
Glow-worm © Mike Waite
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