DICKSON’S COPSE ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT

Isle of Wight Council

Footpath: N30, Cowes to Newport Cycleway

Dickson’s Copse on the Isle of Wight is part of Dodnor Creek Local Nature Reserve. The reserve is about a mile north of Newport, and three miles south of Cowes along the cycleway. There is no vehicular access although there is some parking at the riverside picnic site on the northern edge of Newport.

Dickson’s Copse comprises predominantly oak high forest, thought to have developed from old hazel coppice-with-standards woodland. It supports at least 28 ancient woodland indicator species (those normally associated with woodlands more than 400 years old), including wood anemone Anemone nemorosa, butcher’s broom Ruscus aculeatus, sanicle Sanicula europaea and the nationally scarce narrowleaved lungwort Pulmonaria longifolia, and a notable community of woodland pteridophytes including hart’s-tongue Phyllitis scopolopendrium, polypody Polypodium vulgare and the soft shield fern Polystichum setiferum.