Skip to Content

Special Areas of Conservation

Roydon Common and Dersingham Bog

Designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
Country England
Unitary Authority East Anglia
Centroid* TF686224
Latitude 52.77277778
Longitude 0.499444444
SAC EU Code UK0012801
Status Designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
Area (ha) 353.45
* This is the approximate central point of the SAC. In the case of large, linear or composite sites, this may not represent the location where a feature occurs within the SAC.
Location of Roydon Common and Dersingham Bog SAC

General site character

  • Inland water bodies (Standing water, Running water) (0.3%)
  • Bogs, Marshes, Water fringed vegetation, Fens (5%)
  • Heath, Scrub, Maquis and Garrigue, Phygrana (67%)
  • Dry grassland, Steppes (1%)
  • Improved grassland (1.7%)
  • Broad-leaved deciduous woodland (11%)
  • Coniferous woodland (7%)
  • Mixed woodland (6%)
  • Other land (including Towns, Villages, Roads, Waste places, Mines, Industrial sites) (1%)

Download the Standard Data Form for this site (PDF <100kb)

Note When undertaking an appropriate assessment of impacts at a site, all features of European importance (both primary and non-primary) need to be considered.

Annex I habitats that are a primary reason for selection of this site

  • 4010 Northern Atlantic wet heaths with Erica tetralix

    Roydon Common and Dersingham Bog represent the largest and best examples of M16 Erica tetralix – Sphagnum compactum wet heath in East Anglia. This vegetation community is part of a lowland mixed valley mire, a complex series of plant communities grading from wet acid heath through valley mire to calcareous fen. This gradation is of outstanding interest. The mire is extremely diverse and supports many rare plants, birds and insects, including the dragonfly Sympetrum scoticum, a northern species with a very local distribution in south-east England. Birds protected at European level occurring in the heathland at this site include European nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus, hen harrier Circus cyaneus and merlin Falco columbarius.

  • 7150 Depressions on peat substrates of the Rhynchosporion

    Dersingham Bog represents Depressions on peat substrates of the Rhynchosporion in eastern England. There are examples of this habitat type present in natural bog pools of patterned valley mire, in flushes on the margins of valley mire and locally in disturbed areas associated with trackways and paths in mire and wet heath. Mosaics containing this habitat type are important for bog orchid Hammarbya paludosa.

Annex I habitats present as a qualifying feature, but not a primary reason for selection of this site

Annex II species that are a primary reason for selection of this site

  • Not Applicable

Annex II species present as a qualifying feature, but not a primary reason for site selection

  • Not Applicable

Many designated sites are on private land: the listing of a site in these pages does not imply any right of public access.