Protection for Tân Dinas Quarry, Anglesey Dr Richard Birch CEcol Back in June 2014, Ian Bonner, recorder for Anglesey v.c. 52, and I, made a visit to the disused quarry at Tân Dinas, a former limestone and cement works on the north coast of Anglesey (SH 58366 82003) which ceased working in 1954. At the time of that visit, it was a difficult trip down to the quarry along an overgrown and forgotten access track. On that first visit, we recorded 91 species in SH5882, part of a monad (SH58) with a total of 123 species at the time. That might not sound very many, but more than half the monad is in the sea. However, two of the plants were especially notable: Juniperus communis (Common Juniper) (a Section 7 species – see image 14 on back cover) and Pyrola media (Intermediate Wintergreen), both restricted to single plants. The latter species has never, to my knowledge, previously or since been recorded for Anglesey, and since there was only one flowering plant, we didn’t take any for confirmation. Alas, as part of a footpath diversion avoiding a potentially dangerous route through a farmyard, P. media seems to be among the first casualties of the opening up of the quarry to unbridled public access in 2020. With the prudence borne from a lack of certainty, P. media was never admitted to the county list: extinct before it was ever formally recognised for Anglesey! The quarry is recorded in greater detail now: not just for its vascular plants, but also its rare invertebrates and breeding seabirds. Tân Dinas is already a SSSI for its Carboniferous Limestone geology, forming part of Arfordir Gogleddol Penmon: a 7km length of the north-east coastline of Anglesey. The abandoned quarry face is certainly spectacular, but it lacks the impressive reef formations further along at Fedw Fawr and the fossil fauna is restricted to large brachiopods and solitary corals. The habitats in and around the site include wet heath, calcareous dry heath, neutral grassland, maritime grassland and base-rich flushes, but none of this specifically refers to Tân Dinas, and none of its most interesting plants are specifically included in the citation. In an area not much bigger than a football pitch there are two plants listed as Nationally Rare within Wales (Juniperus communis and Hypericum montanum (Pale St. John’s-wort)) and several others regarded as scarce or uncommon. Most recently this includes the addition of a large colony of Spiranthes spiralis (Autumn Lady’s-tresses) first found there in 2019 (70+ flowering plants in 2020) but not previously recorded. The list for SH 58.82 now stands at 198, having received due attention from the Anglesey Flora Group in the intervening years. BSBI Welsh Bulletin No. 109 March 2022
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