Soil Associations

0311e BANGOR

Soil and site characteristics

Very shallow very acid peaty-topped upland soils. Often on steep slopes. Thick peat in hollows and on gentler slopes. Much rock and scree locally.

Geology

Acid igneous rock

Cropping and Land Use

Stock rearing on moorland habitats of poor grazing value in uplands and mountains; recreation.

Component soil series

Subgroup	Series name	Percentage	WRB 2006 link
3.11	BANGOR	40%	Dystric Epileptic Histosols
10.13	CROWDY	15%	Ombric Sapric Histosols
10.11	WINTER HILL	15%	Ombric Fibric Histosols

Covers 553 km² in England and Wales

Soilscapes Classification

2	Shallow very acid peaty soils over rock

0311e BANGOR

Detailed Description

The Bangor association is extensive in the Lake District and is also found in the Cheviot Hills and in north and central Wales. It covers 533 km², forming moderate to steep craggy ground, from about 300 m to 1,000 m O.D. in the Lake District and north Wales The climate is cold, windy and wet, the most exposed parts having the harshest climate in England and Wales. Humic rankers consisting of shallow acid peat over acid crystalline rock, Bangor series, are the main soils. They are associated with raw oligo-amorphous peat soils belonging to Crowdy and raw oligo-fibrous peat soils, Winter Hill series, on gentle slopes. About a fifth of the land surface is bare rock, which is particularly extensive on hill tops. There are minor inclusions of stagnopodzols where there is thick drift, humic cryptopodzols on level summits and, around the medieval town of Cefnllys near Llandrindod Wells, deep man-made humus soils. Small pockets of Bangor soils occur at unusually low altitudes near the town of Bangor.

Soil Water Regime

The shallow organic soils are quickly saturated with water so with an annual rainfall of 1,000 to 3,600 mm, they rapidly shed rainwater, and river catchments containing a large proportion of these soils often have sudden heavy floods. Nevertheless the shallow soils also dry rapidly and are waterlogged for only about one-third of the time, although the thicker Crowdy and Winter Hill soils remain waterlogged for much of the year (Wetness Class V). A moisture deficit sufficient to cause plants to wilt for short periods in summer occurs in an average of four years out of ten.

Cropping and Land Use

The land is among the poorest in the country and there are few possibilities for improvement. The soil is being eroded in many places, partly due to an inevitable decline in the vigour of plant communities after centuries of sheep rearing with little or no replacement of plant nutrients. Where much-used footpaths cross steep or boggy ground the erosion is exacerbated by human trampling. The land is greatly valued for its landscape and most is protected by National Park legislation. Most of the land is in heather moor, with pockets of blanket bog, often with pools of water. Summits like those of the Carneddau are very rocky with humic cryptopodzols and stony peat soils carrying Rhacomitrium moss, alpine club-moss or viviparous fescue. Patches of Nardus grassland with sedges and heath rush often indicate where snow patches persist in late spring. In the drier Llandrindod Wells district at about 300 m there are bent-fescue grasslands with much bracken and some Nardus, with permanent pastures on lower slopes. The arctic-alpine species of the Cader Idris cliffs and the ash woods of Craig y Benglog are examples of local base-rich flora. Even on acid rocks there is local seepage of water from base-rich rocks above. Most of the land is exposed and too high to be considered suitable for afforestation. Because of the shallow rooting depth, trees are very susceptible to being blown over. There is some potential for forestry on moraine at the heads of valleys where soils are generally deeper and exposure is less but yields would be low and some species would suffer frost damage.

0311e BANGOR

Distribution Map

Note that the yellow shading represents a buffer to highlight the location of very small areas of the association.

Keys to component soil series

Northern Region

Typical Landscapes

Wales

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Citation: To use information from this web resource in your work, please cite this as follows:
Cranfield University 2024. The Soils Guide. Available: www.landis.org.uk. Cranfield University, UK. Last accessed 19/04/2024