Sotterley Park is 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 ...

Sotterley Sotterley, originally ''Southern-lea'' from its situation south of the river,Alfred Inigo Suckling, Suckling, A.I., (1846). 'Sotterley', in ''The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk'', 2 vols (W.S. Cowell, Ipswich 1846), Ipp. 81– ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I. This park was laid out in the eighteenth century, but it goes back at least to the early medieval period, and may retain areas of

primary forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without Disturbance (ecology), disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organizati ...

. It has many large and ancient trees, which have the richest

epiphytic An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

lichen flora in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

, with 92 recorded species. There are also 14 species of

bryophyte Bryophytes () are a group of embryophyte, land plants (embryophytes), sometimes treated as a taxonomic Division (taxonomy), division referred to as Bryophyta ''Sensu#Common qualifiers, sensu lato'', that contains three groups of non-vascular pla ...

s. The park is private land, but there is access to footpaths.

References

{{SSSIs Suffolk Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Suffolk