Stackpole Courtyard Flats and Walled Garden

Also within

Dyfed County Arfordir Penfro / Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

Climate exposure

This is about exposure to a nationwide pressure this habitat type carries — not a verdict on this site's own management.

Geology & landscape

Landscape processes: Coastal

Description

Description The site consists of the Clock Tower Loft, the adjoining lofts above Flat 4, “Woodside” and West Wing, together with the Walled Garden Cellars and associated redundant heating ducts. The Stackpole clock tower loft is the major breeding site in Wales of the greater horseshoe bat Rhinolophus ferrumequinum. This bat has a predominantly southern Palaeartic distribution, and the Welsh population is at the extreme north-western extremity of the species’ range. The British population has suffered severe decline in the past 30 years. The loft is crucially important in concentrating a geographically dispersed population of this rare species at a single breeding site. The nearby Walled Garden cellars and old redundant heating ducts complex provide important transitory roosts, utilised in the spring and autumn. The nursery colony of greater horseshoe bats in the clock tower loft was first discovered in 1977 although clearly, from anecdotal information supplied by the Cawdor family and local people, it was a long-established breeding colony. Subsequent research has examined total population size, annual breeding success, growth rate of juveniles, feeding ecology and habitat requirements. A ringing programme established that the loft is the principal breeding site for an estimated population of at least 350 individuals, which range extensively over about 2000 square kilometres of West Wales. Numbers of young produced annually have varied from 38 to 79 between 1978 and 1992. Interchange of adults and young between Stackpole and a subsidiary breeding site at Slebech (near Haverfordwest) has also been proved. The loft is occupied from April to November, when most bats leave for hibernation. In some winters between 25% and 60% of the population has been recorded within the nursery loft during winter months. The garden cellars and heating ducts support less than 12 bats at any one time, but large numbers of individuals pass through. These areas are also thought to be important in the post-breeding dispersal of juvenile bats from the breeding loft and have been used traditionally for a number of years. The lofts immediately adjacent to the north-west of the clock tower lofts – above Flat 4 and “Woodside” – are also of special significance for the smaller, but closely related, lesser horseshoe bat Rhinolophus hipposideros. Here there is a nursery roost which, although less well studied, has regularly contained between 85 and 110 individuals (adults and young) from count data collated between 1986 and 1992. Historical information suggests that lesser horseshoe bats have also had a long established association with Stackpole. The Courtyard Flats nursery roost is probably one of the largest lesser horseshoe bat colonies in Pembrokeshire and is one of only seven confirmed nursery roosts in the county of Pembrokeshire. Lesser horseshoe bats are more numerous and widespread than greater horseshoe bats, but their population has also suffered recent serious declines and retraction in area. They are presently very much restricted to Western Britain, the main concentrations being in Wales and South West England. Lesser horseshoe bats also regularly occur in adjacent lofts of the Courtyard Flats “west-wing”, notably during autumn dispersal. Significantly, they presently gain access to their nursery roost via these adjacent lofts. They are regularly found in the cellars and heating ducts in the spring and autumn, and small numbers (probably usually less than 20) hibernate within the lofts/cellars/heating ducts complex during the winter months. The Courtyard Flats west-wing lofts and walled garden cellars and heating ducts complex are used by a variety of other species, in addition to greater and lesser horseshoe bats. These include pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus, which has a nursery roost in the west-wing lofts which has numbered over 500 individuals. Other species of regular occurrence include brown long-eared bat Plecotus auritus, which may breed. Natterer’s bat Myotis nattereri, Daubenton’s bat Myotis daubentonii and whiskered bat Myotis mystacinus also occur in small numbers and may regularly hibernate within the cellar/heating ducts complex. Remarks: The site lies within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

Species mentioned