Characteristics of Fairwood Common
Landscape
Pengwern and Fairwood are two large areas of adjacent common land. They consist of wet heathy grassland and marshy grassland with bracken and scrub on the higher ground.
Fairwood Common surrounds Swansea Airport. The B4271 dissects the site and the A4118 also crosses Fairwood Common. After a long-running traffic reduction campaign, there is now a 40mph speed limit on Fairwood Common, one of the busiest on the Peninsula.
Wildlife
Priors Wood and Meadow is managed by the Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales and is adjacent to the northern boundary of Fairwood Common.
Fairwood itself has much wildlife interest including plant species such as tormentil (Potentilla erecta), lousewort (Pedicularis sylvatica) and ragged robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi).
Badgers and frogs frequent the area.
Many birds are to be found here, including snipe, skylark, meadow pipit, mistle thrush, yellowhammer and linnet.
462ha
Common land
Open access land
Fairwood Common is a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC)
Part of Gower Commons Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
Within Gower Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)
Within West Gower landscape which is included in the Register of Landscapes of Outstanding Historic Interest in Wales (CCW/CADW: Welsh Historic Monuments/ICOMOS UK 1998, 53-56)
SS575928