Classed as an area of ancient woodland, Berry Wood is in the care of the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales.

The wood covers an area of 6.8 ha. (16.9 acres) and is located on gently sloping, NE-facing ground at 50m above OD. It is described as 'an example of an ancient Oak dominated coppice-with-standards woodland, rare in this part of the Gower.' Oak is present with Birch, Ash, Hazel, Sallow, Rowan and Aspen, along with Hawthorn, Crab Apple and Holly (1).
The wood has a roughly trapezoidal shape and although there are both rectilinear and curvilinear parcel boundaries nearby, the wood perimeter is ragged in plan appearance. A cursory examination under late autumn vegetation conditions revealed archaeological evidence for early wood management. This took the form of an enclosing bank with external ditching, especially clear on the N boundary. The bank appears to have been formerly hedged, as is suggested by the presence on it of Oak stubs and low pollards. In addition, substantial Oak coppice stools were noted towards the centre of the wood. The interior is gently undulating and poorly drained in places; this may have marked out the area as marginal, relatively infertile and less suitable for agriculture, and better reserved as woodland. A short distance to the east is a larger block of (now coniferised) woods of which Berry Wood may once have formed a part.
Little is known of the wood's history. The area in which it lies can be equated with the Knights Hospitaller manor of Berry, the wood being located on the boundary of this small manor. The knight's fee of Scurlage lies adjacent to the manor, on its W (2). The wood now lies at the point of convergence of three communities; Port Eynon, Reynoldston and Penrice.
The evidence of 19th century maps suggests the eastern side of the wood - an irregular strip of between 100m and 30m width adjacent to the boundary - was clear-felled in the first half of that century, but allowed to regenerate naturally with some planting of Oak. The SW corner of the wood is more open and grassy due to past incursions by cattle; aside from this, the western part has remained untouched and contains the largest and the oldest trees.

(1) Wildlife Trust website: www.welshwildlife.org
(2) C.A.Seyler, 'The early charters of Swansea and Gower. part 2', Archaeologia Cambrensis 79 (1924), 299-325 (map)

David Leighton, RCAHMW, 29 December 2006