A Walk around Woodhall Dean

I am still catching up on late Spring walks and this is the final one. Woodhall Dean is a nature reserve about 3 miles (5K) from Dunbar and deep into the countryside. The woods are “dominated by sessile oak” – a new term to me. Sessile Oak (good photos) is different from the more famous English Oak but is still a formidable tree. The term Sessile which I had to look up is “used to refer to a leaf or flower that has no stem of its own but is attached directly to the main stem of the plant”. It also refers to immobile shellfish such as barnacles. This is a quiet and peaceful walk but can be quite strenuous in parts and is referred to locally as uppy doony. The reserve is known for its bluebells in the Spring and for its adders from April onwards. As I began the walk, I passed the entry sign and you can just see some of the now fading bluebells behind (photo below). There is information about adders (good photos) on the entry boards but few people get to see the Vipera berus on their walk. The adder is the UK’s only venomous snake – it is a viper – but its bite is not dangerous, although medical help is advised.

Entrance to Woodhall Dean (Click on all photos to enlarge – recommended)

This is an undulating walk and you are helped to get up some of the steeper slopes by mini stairs. The photo below shows one of the triple set of steps amid the lush greenery of the woods. In some parts of the walk, where there are no steps, you have to be careful not to slide on the scree on a downslope. It was very dry on my walk but it can be quite muddy. As I walked, I could hear birdsong most of the time but what I suspect were blue tits and chaffinches hid themselves very well. I am told that it is common to hear a woodpecker here but they had obviously gone elsewhere that day.

Steepish walk at Woodhall Dean

I stopped at one point on the walk and took this video which gives you a good impression of the type of walk this is and also the variety of trees and plants that you will come across.

I mentioned wild garlic (good photos) in the video and there was a plethora of it, with shining white flowers and bright green leaves all over the wood. At some points, when passing large clumps of garlic, you could experience a strong smell from the plants. Wild garlic adds to the wide variety of colours you see in a walk such as this, both in spreads (1st photo below) and close up (2nd photo below). As you look at a spread of wild garlic, you see the flower heads which look like star bursts and resemble what you might see in the sky when a firework rocket explodes against the dark sky. The second photo below shows both the closed, tulip-like heads of the flower and the multi-petalled, dazzling white flowers, with each having six anthers reaching out like antennae to attract pollinating insects. The open flowers look joyful and each is a single work of art.

Wild garlic in Woodhall Dean

White star bursts of wild garlic flowers

I followed the lower path back to the start of the walk and the river at one one point forms a mini-loch/lake. Although the water is flowing through the pond, it appeared to be flat calm. The photo below shows how this calmness allowed the reflections of the trees and the by now clear blue sky to appear. On the left of the photo you can see that blossom remained on the large hawthorn bush and this was reflected – in a much duller white – in the water. Further on I met a friend who had been swimming in the water next to where they were having lunch. If you enlarge the photo, you may see the two figures sitting down on the right near the end of the path.

Loch/lake/pond at Woodhall Dean

Earlier, when I had walked down a steep slope to the river’s edge, I took another video, to try and capture the quiet, calm and peaceful nature of the edge of the woodland. I was tempted to add commentary but decided against it, so you can enjoy your own thoughts as you watch and listen. Woodhall Dean is worth visiting at all times of the year but late Spring maybe shows it at its peak.

Glass bluebell, Town House wedding and early summer evening

In my poetry calendar a while ago – To Capture Endymion – a poem by Christopher North, begins “That bluebell -/ I would have one like it,/exactly like it, to the filigree detail/but in purest glass”. I did a search for glass bluebells and there are many for sale e.g. via Amazon but I struggled to find anything which was very impressive. The bluebells around East Lothian are just beginning to fade but they are an inspiring sight when seen in the woodlands e.g. in Woodhall Dean. The following photographs were taken near Hedderwick Farm, about 3.5 miles from Dunbar.

Bluebells at Hedderwick

Bluebells at Hedderwick

Bluebells at Hedderwick

On Saturday, we were at our friends’ wedding in Dunbar’s Town House, a 16th century building, described in Canmore –  “Dunbar Town House is oblong on plan and has two storeys and a dormered attic; a semi-hexagonal stair-tower capped by a slated piend roof and then a lead-covered, oval-vented spire projects from the W wall”. The wedding ceremony took place in the Council Chambers where the old town council used to meet. It is a large room with photos of the Provosts of Dunbar around the walls. The bride and groom are both members of Dunbar Running Club and at the reception – in the excellent Open Arms in Direlton (good photos) – each table had a flag with the name of a marathon which had been completed by the bride and/or groom. This was a wedding of a mature couple and while this was not their first kick at the baw, it was still a joyous occasion.
It’s almost summer here in Scotland and the temperatures are slowly creeping up. The most important change to our lives is the lengthening days and it’s now still light at 10pm. Last night was the first time I’ve grabbed my camera, gone our the back door, and photographed the sky with the multi-shaped clouds. As ever, you are invited to identify what you associate with the shapes in the sky in these photographs. My ideas are in the captions.

Rock shapes and cloud shapes

Sky waves

Whales in the sky