Holly Hayes Wood
Selected Wild Place / Other Wild Places / Public Rights of Way / VC55 boundary
The main access is from Leicester Road. A public right of way, the Ivanhoe Way, runs east to west from Meadow Lane, Coalville to St Bernards Rd, Whitwick. All other access is permissive and for now, open to public access. Some of the tracks date back to the medieval period.
Public access along the recognised footpaths.
Total species seen at this site:
The main part of the site is ancient woodland, with a more recent plantation to the south west. The wood is now managed by the Coalville Education Partnership, who have developed a plan to restore traditional management practices.
The wood lies to the south of Whitwick is is encircled by housing on three sides and adjacent to a quarry on the eastern boundary.
The wood is listed in the Domesday Book, though the name Holly Hayes Wood is more recent, believed to have been used in the mid 19th century when it was thought to have been linked to the adjacent Holly Hayes Farm and probably used for winter grazing.
The woodland supports a wide range of species, including Jay and Muntjac. It has quite a lot of fallen dead wood. This produces an excellent range of interesting fungi. A good list of moths has been recorded here. Plant species such as sanicle indicate that some parts of the wood are old woodland. There is a lovely show of bluebells in spring. An enormous hornbeam has fallen over and continued to grow. The stream is a very attractive feature alongside some lovely beech trees.
The records and images below may include those from adjacent sites if the grid reference submitted with these records overlaps the boundary of this Wild Place.
The latest images and records displayed below include those awaiting verification checks so we cannot guarantee that every identification is correct. Once accepted, the record displays a green tick.
In the Latest Records section, click on the header to sort A-Z, and again to sort Z-A. Use the header boxes to filter the list.