Page 6 - Natural World Spring 2017

GREAT DAYS OUT

Barkbooth Lot,
an ancient wood
looked after by
Cumbria Wildlife
Trust

JOHN MORRISON Great places to
see bluebells

No photograph does a bluebell wood justice: you just have to see it for
yourself. And in the UK we have some of the best displays in the world

Of all our wild places, ancient presence denotes a truly ancient 1 Moss Valley Woodlands
woodlands are the ones most forest. And these beautiful flowers WT for She eld & Rotherham
steeped in magic. Take one are an important early food source A secluded reserve on the southern
step inside and you can sense the for bees and butterflies. boundary of She eld containing a
sheer age of the trees and the soil. beautiful string of ancient woodlands.
The Wildlife Trusts care for Where is it? From Jordanthorpe to
But for a few weeks in April and hundreds of bluebell woodlands. Norton, just to the south of She eld
May there’s something more magical Here are just a few of them. S8 8DZ. Map ref. SK 371807.
still: an extravagant carpet of heavily-
scented blue flowers. Bluebells 2 Emsworthy Mire
denote a Devon Wildlife Trust
The UK has half the world’s truly ancient High altitude and a lack of trees
population of common bluebells, and forest means the bluebells only flower here
their profusion here reaches a peak when they’ve gone elsewhere. A ‘last
unequalled anywhere else on earth. chance to see’ in late May/early June.
A bluebell’s seeds only spread a foot
or so from each plant, so their

6 NATURAL WORLD SPRING 2017