Cleddon Bog (; ) is a bog in the

vice-county A vice-county (also spelled vice county) is a geographical division of the British Isles. It is also called biological vice-county as it is used for purposes of biological recording and other scientific data-gathering, or sometimes called a Wat ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

which has been notified as a

biological Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

. It lies within the

Wye Valley The Wye Valley () is a valley in Wales and England. The River Wye () is the Rivers of Great Britain#Longest rivers in the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The upper part of the valley is in the Cambrian Mountains an ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 2023, the areas in England an ...

. It was declared a Local Nature Reserve in May 1970. The bramble '' Rubus trelleckensis'', which is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Monmouthshire, is present at the site. Other plant species present include

cranberry Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus ''Vaccinium''. Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to long and in height; they have slender stems that are not th ...

(''Vaccinium oxycoccos''), bog asphodel (''Narthecium ossifragum''), round-leaved sundew (''Drosera rotundifolia''), bottle sedge (''Carex rostrata'') and heath spotted orchid (''Dactylorhiza maculata''). The site is one of the best sites for recording butterflies and moths in eastern Wales. The site's interfaces between boggy heathland and woodland, with patches of

bilberry Bilberries () are Eurasian low-growing shrubs in the genus ''Vaccinium'' in the flowering plant family Ericaceae that bear edible, dark blue berries. They resemble but are distinct from North American blueberries. The species most often referre ...

and heather grow under an open canopy of

rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus'' of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the Himalaya ...

and other deciduous trees, means that it is home to a variety of important lepidoptera species for Wales such as the Bilberry Pug and welsh wave moths. Cleddon Bog is important not because it has so many national rarities, the only one UK Biodiversity Action Plan Priority species present is the White-line Snout, although three Species of Conservation Concern have also been recorded, but in its diversity of species, for some of which it represents the sole Gwent site. A total of 57 nationally notable or local species of butterfly and moth have been recorded on site. Among the 18 species of butterflies which have been recorded the

silver-washed fritillary The silver-washed fritillary (''Argynnis paphia'') is a common and variable butterfly found over much of the Palearctic realm – Algeria, Europe and across the Palearctic to Japan. Description The silver-washed fritillary butterfly is deep ora ...

was always uncommon, however the small pearl-bordered fritillary, which was common has gone unrecorded since 1987. This follows the pattern of this species decline across eastern Gwent. The

green hairstreak The green hairstreak (''Callophrys rubi'') is a small butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. Etymology The genus name ''Callophrys'' is a Greek word meaning "beautiful eyebrows", while the species Latin name ''rubi'' derives from ''Rubus'' (brambl ...

also appear to have been extirpated from the site. The heathland moths have also declined, with some species not being recorded in recent years. An increase in the density of the grass growing and of tree cover threatened to dry Cleddon Bog out, and between 2009 and 2012 management was carried out by the Environment Agency and the Countryside Council for Wales to restore the bog and to create new wet habitats for the bog's flora and fauna.

References

{{coord, 51.732, -2.712, dim:2000_region:GB, display=title Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Monmouthshire