Old Castle Down is a Site of Special Scientific Interest between St Brides Major and Ewenny in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales.
The Countryside Council for Wales states that the site has been categorised as a Site of Special Interest "...for a range of vegetation types and rare species. It supports calcareous grassland, acid grassland and heathland on limestone. Soft-leaved sedge and pale heath-violet are themselves features of interest and a number of other plants occur here which are rare in Wales. These include bristle-bent, a grass which is found in South-West England but in only a few places in South Wales. The site and the surrounding area provides habitat for the high brown fritillary, a butterfly which is rare and declining nationally. Old Castle Down SSSI also includes a geological feature of importance. The disused Duchy Quarry exposes Carboniferous rocks (about 340 million years old). Cracks and fissures within these rocks were infilled by sediments in Jurassic times (about 195 million years ago). These sediments incorporate the fossil remains of reptiles and primitive mammals." [1]
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The Drakensberg is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, which encloses the central Southern African plateau. The Great Escarpment reaches its greatest elevation – 2,000 to 3,482 metres within the border region of South Africa and Lesotho.
South Wales is an area with many features of outstanding interest to geologists, who have for long used the area for University field trips.
The geology of Wales is complex and varied; its study has been of considerable historical significance in the development of geology as a science. All geological periods from the Cryogenian to the Jurassic are represented at outcrop, whilst younger sedimentary rocks occur beneath the seas immediately off the Welsh coast. The effects of two mountain-building episodes have left their mark in the faulting and folding of much of the Palaeozoic rock sequence. Superficial deposits and landforms created during the present Quaternary period by water and ice are also plentiful and contribute to a remarkably diverse landscape of mountains, hills and coastal plains.
Aberbargoed Grasslands is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Rhymney Valley in Mid & South Glamorgan, South Wales. The area was designated a national nature reserve in 2012 largely due to its population of marsh fritillary butterflies. It is managed by Caerphilly County Borough.
Blaenrhondda Road Cutting is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Glamorgan, south Wales.
Brynna a Wern Tarw is a Site of Special Scientific Interest located around Brynna in Rhondda Cynon Taf and Pencoed in Bridgend, south Wales.
Caeau Cefn Cribwr is a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Cefn Cribwr in Bridgend, south Wales.
Cliff Wood – Golden Stairs is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales.
Cwm Cadlan is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Glamorgan, south Wales. It is made up of a series of wet grassland fields in a small valley to the north west of Merthyr Tydfil. It is also designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a National Nature Reserve (NNR).
Llantrisant Common and Pastures is a 113-hectare (280-acre) Site of Special Scientific Interest in Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf, south Wales. It was established in 2000.
Lower House Stream Section is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Rhymney Valley, in Caerphilly County Borough, south Wales.
Southerndown Coast is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in St Brides Major community, in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It forms part of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, bordered by the Monknash Coast to the southeast. The nearby villages are Southerndown and Ogmore-by-Sea. The SSSI extends over 5 kilometres of south-west facing coastline, with rocky limestone cliffs, broad beaches and deeply fissured wave-cut platforms.
Waun Cimla, also known as Bedford Park is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Glamorgan, south Wales. It contains the Cefn Cribwr Ironworks and some 40 acres of woodlands and meadows.
Wern Ddu Claypits is a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Van in Caerphilly County Borough, South Wales. The woodland is known locally as Coed y Werin, which surrounds a 19th-century clay pit, dug to supply clay to the Caerphilly Brick Company. It is designated because of the important coal measure rocks exposed there.
Woodland Park and Pontpren is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Rhondda Cynon Taf, south Wales. The site consists of three separate blocks of land, approximately 1 km south of the village of Penderyn.
Clemenstone or Clemenston is a hamlet located in the western part of the Vale of Glamorgan, southeast Wales, southeast of Bridgend. Historically part of Glamorgan, it contains the Clemenstone Estate and House, long-time seat of the Curre family, and a Sports Academy. Clemenstone Meadows are a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
St Brides Major is a community on the western edge of the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. Its largest settlement is the village of St Brides Major, and also includes the villages of Ogmore-by-Sea and Southerndown, and the hamlets of Ogmore Village, Castle-upon-Alun, Heol-y-Mynydd, Norton and Pont-yr-Brown It is notable for coastal geology and scenery, limestone downlands and fossilised primitive mammals, sea cliffs and beaches, two Iron Age hillforts, three medieval castle sites,, two stepping stone river crossings and a clapper bridge. Three long distance paths cross the community. It is the western limit of the Vale of Glamorgan Heritage Coast, and has a visitor centre and tourist facilities.
Beeding Hill to Newtimber Hill is a 321-hectare (790-acre) biological and geological Downland Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) north of Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 2, and it includes Devil's Dyke Geological Conservation Review site.
Quarry Moor is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI, at the south edge of Ripon, North Yorkshire, England, and adjacent to the A61 road. It contains an outcrop of Magnesian Limestone, exposed by former quarrying. 255 million years ago this limestone was the peripheral sediment of a tropical sea. The land was donated in 1945 to the people of Ripon by the town's mayor, Alderman Thomas Fowler Spence, a varnish manufacturer. The land was notified as an SSSI in 1986 because its calcareous grassland supported a large diversity of plant species. The site features a Schedule 8 protected plant, thistle broomrape. The land is protected as a nature reserve, and it is also managed as a recreational area. Therefore, its calcareous grass area is fenced off for protection and study, but it also contains a car park, information signs, a children's play area, accessible paths, benches, and dog waste bins.
Milford Haven Waterway, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on Milford Haven Waterway in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, designated since 2002. The site is protected for a wide range of reasons, including its geology, marine environment and ecosystems, and to protect a diversity of flora and fauna.