Restoration Plan – Overview

The wooded grounds of Myross House are made up of two sections, which divide at the top of the open lawn in front of the house.

In managing the woods our overall goal will be: To maintain and improve the woods for their biodiversity and, in doing this, improve their value for people.  As we do this, while respecting their history, we will explore links to human health & wellbeing, while all the time being very aware of the greatest challenge of all – climate change.

In practice as we begin to manage the area, we are likely to want to gently shift the site from a mixed broadleaf woodland to a more oak-dominated birch and holly woodland (the most natural woodland type for this area). There are lot of challenges along the way to doing this not least removing the damaging non-native cherry laurel for instance.

Both pieces of woodland suffered greatly in Storm Ophelia (2017) with large areas of existing woodland or forestry flattened.  Right now, these areas are rapidly regenerating with younger willow and birch trees fighting their way up through the briars. Our goals here will be to enable and supplement this natural process to help new oak dominated wooded areas develop.

To the southeast lies the area that most visitors would know as Myross Wood itself. A beautiful small woodland that slopes down to Glandore Harbour. This is a highly protected site for a rare plant and our work here will be fully consented by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS)

The second northern woodland arm – Tunnel Wood – extends back from the grounds of the house along the road to Leap. On the upper slopes that escaped Ophelia’s damage there are some very nice areas of biodiversity-rich oak woodland. Equally though there are challenges of invasive damaging shrubs like the cherry laurel and rhododendron. Over time we will want to eradicate these to allow a more natural woodland to develop.

As we look forward there’s a lot to do to make these lovely woods even better for biodiversity and for people. At the close of 2022 we have agreed our first outline plan for the future of the woodlands. We will keep this as a ‘live’ Management Plan adapting it to ensure we reflect what we learn about the site and the best routes to the future.

You can find our Plan here:  Management Plan 2022