Our Reserves

Carvers Rocks SSSI

(Grid reference SK330227)

Nearest Town:  Swadlincote

Grid reference:  SK 330227  (OS Landranger 128 Derby & Burton upon Trent)

How to get there: The reserve can be reached from the A514 Ticknall to Swadlincote road. There is limited parking at the road gates.

Access: Paths open at all times

Download a pdf map of the reserve.

Carvers Rocks lies at the southern end of Foremark Reservoir. The site is very important for its range of habitats and the result of varying geology and hydrology. In the valley where the stream runs into the reservoir there are a range of unusual habitats from marsh to alder woodland, and in one area an unusual valley side mire where sphagnum moss still dominates.

During summer these wet marshes are a good place to see and hear reed buntings, while the reservoir fringe has breeding great crested grebes. On the drier slopes woodland takes over and various woodland species can be found. In the more open areas you may hear woodcock roding on early summer evenings.

On the tops, soils are much thinner and woodland is replaced by bracken and in places heather - Carvers Rocks has one of the last patches of lowland heath in Derbyshire.