Ballymacallion ASSI

This area is of special scientific interest because of its species-rich grassland.

Species-rich grassland tends to occur only where land management is not intensive, in particular where traditional farming practices have been maintained. As a result, it is not a widespread habitat in Northern Ireland and is often fragmented, consisting of individual fields, parts of fields or banks. Species-rich dry grasslands, like some of those found at Ballymacallion, are a particularly scarce resource in Northern Ireland, even in this area of County Londonderry, where there is known to be a greater proportion of this habitat type.

Ballymacallion is situated within the upper reaches of the river valley of the Gelvin and its tributaries, on the northern extent of the Sperrins, about 9km northeast of Dungiven. The soils on the majority of the area are humic rankers, a thin primitive soil derived from the underlying parent material of basic igneous rock. Lying to the south of the site close to the river, the soils have developed into wetter gleys. The grassland is composed of seven field parcels sloping from northeast to southwest with associated areas of scrub and woodland downslope along the river valley floor. The combination of topography and the related soil hydrology has resulted in a relatively complex range of grassland communities. These vary from dry to wet, and from moderately base-rich to acid grassland types. Often these differences in type are evident over quite small areas and locally form mosaics with other semi-natural vegetation types, for example, fen meadow, rush pasture and where drier conditions exist, lowland meadow.

The drier fields are typically grass dominated with a wide range of associated herbs. The grass, crested dog’s-tail is a constant component of the sward along with red fescue, common bent, sweet vernal-grass and heath-grass. Sedges are also constant in the sward and include glaucous sedge, carnation sedge and spring-sedge. Herbs typical of traditionally managed grasslands are frequent throughout the sward and include devil’s-bit scabious, cat’s-ear, selfheal and meadow buttercup. Less frequent are bulbous buttercup and autumn hawkbit. Where soils are thin common bird’s-foot-trefoil is found with a range of other small herbs including heath bedstraw, eyebright and lady’s-mantle.

Where there is increased water movement through the soil and local waterlogging, species reflecting the wetter conditions predominate. Jointed rush, sharp-flowered rush and soft-rush all dominate in varying proportions in these wetter pastures, located mostly towards the base of the slope. Associated plants reflecting the wetter soil conditions include marsh thistle, meadowsweet, meadow thistle, marsh ragwort, greater bird’s-foot-trefoil and lesser spearwort.

The variation in hydrology and related topography, and past and present management has resulted in a considerable range of species present in a relatively small area. In addition to the species already mentioned several orchids were recorded including, common spotted-orchid, early marsh-orchid and northern marsh-orchid. Other notable plants include whorled caraway which is abundant on the site, a plant of local distribution typically found in wet grassland in this area of North Londonderry.

Woodland and scrub provides further diversity and adds to the conservation interest of the area. Semi-natural woodland and scrub occurs in a small valley to the south east of Ballymacallion where it is fenced from the grassland area. It is predominantly coppiced hazel with pockets of downy birch and willows. Other shrubs include hawthorn, holly and rowan. The ground cover is variable with grasses and moss covered boulders dominating the lower slopes with species such as bluebell, wood avens, wood-sorrel, herb-Robert, pignut, common dog-violet, ferns and thickets of bramble occur on the upper slopes. Scattered scrub with blackthorn and gorse form an integral mosaic with the grazed grasslands, particularly on the lower slopes.

Ballymacallion is a significant area of semi-natural grassland and associated habitats that have been managed in a traditional way. As such, it provides valuable feeding and roosting sites for a range of animals, including birds and invertebrates. Several badger setts were noted within the wood and several species of butterflies recorded, including meadow brown and ringlet.

Site Related Documents

Site map (.PDF 660Kb), Citation document (.PDF 154Kb) and Views about Management document (.PDF 60Kb).