Rock House

The owners of Rock House were about to start re-roofing works on the building when the roofers identified bats in the roof void. The works were stopped immediately and Switch Ecology were contacted to provide advice on a way forward.

A Preliminary Roost Assessment (PRA) of the building was carried out which identified large numbers of bat droppings, confirmed to be common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) droppings through eDNA analysis. A Natural Resources Wales (NRW) licence application was subsequently put together to allow the re-roofing works to continue during the winter months.

On receipt of the NRW licence the re-roofing works started, during early 2024. The access points around the building were mapped and the roof was removed, under direct supervision of the nominated ecologist. Any bats encountered were moved to bat boxes erected on trees around the site.

During the reinstatement of the roof lead access points were installed providing bats with access to the roof void and void between the tiles and bitumen lining felt. All re-roofing works were completed before the peak season, in line with the licence timescales.

Licence monitoring was carried out during the peak survey season with bats identified to have returned to roosts in the building. The results of the monitoring survey were provided to NRW to complete the works required under the licence.