Welcome to the official Piles Copse website!
Piles Copse is an ancient English oak woodland in the Erme valley on southern Dartmoor. Piles Copse is an amazing place, and a popular spot for visitors.
What you might not know about Piles Copse is that it is privately owned and managed, and that it is an important conservation area. It’s legally designated as both a Site of Special Scientific Interest and an Environmentally Sensitive Area, due to its rich assemblage of high level oak woodland and lichens and epiphytes.
Over recent decades, livestock grazing has prevented the woodland from regenerating, and the old trees are starting to die back. We are now working to encourage the rejuvenation of this beautiful and biodiverse oak woodland, and you can read about our ongoing projects and activities on our blog.
You can find out more about visiting Piles Copse here. There’s also information about Piles Copse’s history and ecology, and how its owners, the Howell family, are working to conserve this special place and enable the oak trees to regenerate.
Piles Copse 