Mark Ash

The huge Beech stands of Mark Ash are sight to behold, huge trunks, now bereft of foliage, rise majestically towards the sky. Mark Ash is undulus, a network of bluffs and gullies, feeding into moss filled valleys, the origin of brooks. The canopy is not complete though, there are localized and more substantial voids, lingering reminders of the great storms of over 20 years go. In 1987 a hurricane strength storm ravaged the South, wreaking chaos throughout the forest; scores of ancient leviathans were toppled. Evidence of these fallen leviathans still litter the woodland floor, while the tall stumps of trees ripped in half by the howling winds, rot like mammoth termite hills. Giant decaying hulks, returning, finally, to the earth to nourish the next generation, eternally recycled, a permanent feature of the forest. Dry compressed patches are visible in the deep beech leaf mass, evidence of the overnight rest spots of Deer, common about these parts.