Skip to Content

Special Areas of Conservation

Cors Fochno

Designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
Country Wales
Unitary Authority West Wales and The Valleys
Centroid* SN631913
Latitude 52.503
Longitude -4.016
SAC EU Code UK0014791
Status Designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
Area (ha) 653.018
* 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 Cors Fochno SAC

General site character

  • Bogs, Marshes, Water fringed vegetation, Fens (85%)
  • Heath, Scrub, Maquis and Garrigue, Phygrana (9%)
  • Humid grassland, Mesophile grassland (5%)
  • Improved grassland (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

  • 7110 Active raised bogs  * Priority feature

    Cors Fochno (also known as Borth Bog) lies on the south side of the Dyfi estuary in Wales and forms a component part of the Dyfi Biosphere Reserve. Although a substantial part of the former peatland complex has been taken for agriculture, the surviving core area supports the largest expanse of primary near-natural raised bog in an estuarine context within the UK. Extensive areas of patterned mire include occasional hummocks of the bog-mosses Sphagnum fuscum and, more rarely, S. imbricatum ssp. austinii, with hollows supporting S. pulchrum, greater sundew Drosera anglica, white beak-sedge Rhynchospora alba and bog-rosemary Andromeda polifolia. The extensive cover of bog-myrtle Myrica gale and maritime margins with black bog-rush Schoenus nigricans are distinctive features of this site in an England and Wales context. Areas of domestic peat-cutting peripheral to the dome are now actively regenerating and support a significant area of active bog vegetation; 7120 degraded raised bog also occurs widely around the periphery of the active core.

  • 7120 Degraded raised bogs still capable of natural regeneration

    Substantial areas of degraded raised bog occur peripheral to 7110 active raised bog at this extensive estuarine raised mire site. Included here are a range of vegetation types in which peat formation has been arrested as a consequence of intensive drainage followed in places by peat removal and/or agricultural management. The vegetation cover of these areas is varied and includes grazed and ungrazed Molinia – Myrica swards, reed Phragmites stands, rush Juncus pasture, wet woodland and scrub, drier areas of acid grassland and bracken Pteridium aquilinum, and improved grassland over archaic deep peat.

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.