Site description

The mountains of the Lleyn Peninsula fall sheer into the sea, broken by wide bays and rocky coves.

Bardsey Island at its tip is similarly rocky, with crags and low cliffs giving home to a variety of flowering plants.

Botanical significance

The area provides a suitable habitat for lichens, and the cliffs and heaths around Aberdaron are one of the few sites in the UK where the ciliate strap lichen together with the golden hair lichen, Teloschistes flavicans, can be found.

The sites selected exhibit species-richness including the presence of rare and threatened species, and/or contain a high number of Maritime Indicator species. Examples containing northern, western and southern elements of the lichen flora have been selected. The sites support rich assemblages of species from exclusively maritime communities including the Verrucarietum maurae, Calplacetum marinae, Ramalinetum scopularis and Sclerophytetum circumscriptae. Assemblages from several undescribed terricolous communities are also represented. The sites selected all have high scores on the provisional Maritime Lichen Index.

Research/Conservation Projects

IBA: Glannau Aberdaron and Ynys Enlli (Aberdaron Coast and Bardsey Island)overlaps with IPA

Habitat/Land use

This habitat includes maritime sites encompassing species and communities from the littoral zone to xeric-supralittoral zone on rocky shores.

Fauna

Important Bird Area