Coombe Hill () is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, notified in 1994.Natural England SSSI information on the citation
/ref> Stroud District Local Plan, adopted November 2005, Appendix 6 ‘Sites of Nature Conservation Interest’
The site lies within the

Cotswold The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Juras ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Cotswold Hills Environmentally Sensitive Area. It is near Wotton-under-Edge. It is moderately steep, and mainly faces south.

Flora

The hill is a large, unimproved

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

grassland pasture area, with an ungrazed area and an edge of broadleaved woodland (along the western boundary). This site is of special notification because of its large area of ''flower rich'' grassland. It is specifically a site for the nationally rare

Limestone Woundwort Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms when th ...

''(Stachy alpina)''. A nearby site ( Wotton Hill SSSI) supports this rare plant also.

References

SSSI Source

Natural England SSSI information on the citation

Natural England SSSI information on the Coombe Hill, Stroud units

External links

Natural England
(SSSI information) Image:Looking towards Coombe Hill - geograph.org.uk - 273624.jpg, Looking towards Coombe Hill, Stroud Image:Strip Lynchets on Coombe Hill - geograph.org.uk - 273634.jpg, Lynchets on Coombe Hill, Stroud Image:Strip Lynchets on Coombe Hill - geograph.org.uk - 273638.jpg, Lynchets on Coombe Hill, Stroud Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1994 Cotswolds Wotton-under-Edge {{England-SSSI-stub