The way

This is the way. From Studley Head down into Island Thorns that is. I'm really digging walking Island Thorns and Amderwood enclosures, revisiting fallow routes and magical spots of my walking yore, and discovering new routes and magical spots as we do.

Island Thorns

A wonderful aspect to the forests' woodlands is that although composing of a relatively homogeneous matrix of species they all manifest with noticeably different characters. We were back in Island Thorns this morning, and a beautiful morning it was too. The character of these stands is open and airy, a mosaic of predominantly oak of various ages and densities. Hidden in a shallow valley it's a quiet enclosure away from most sounds of modernity, with endless green paths to wander.   

Woodwork

 

Cleanly and meticulously removed from a long fallen tree, I wonder what'll become of the missing piece. Something cool I imagine.

Latchmore Brook

 

The forest isn't as uniform as you might imagine, homogeneous blocks of woodland and heath it isn't; although many areas of heath or woodland may share a very similar floral make up, each has it's own distinct aspects and attributes. That's why it's so easy to end up with countless 'favourite' spots. Amberwood and Island Thorns are favourites of mine, they're quite unlike any other woods in the forest; overwhelmingly deciduous, mostly stands of Beech and Oak of varying degrees of spread; walking their myriad tracks and paths is magical, none more so than when following the Latchmore Brooks' bank-side path, and especially as it passes through the stands of Amberwood.  The stands here abouts have a certain air to them, a natural magic that's hard to describe.

Bullseye

Bullseye! A storm toppled tree smashed near perfectly diagonally across and through the railings of this woodland bridge. What are odds? Guaranteed. Sods' Law demands it.

Islands Thorns

 

Islands Thorns.

Islands Thorns

We've spent our recent Sunday long walks amongst the glorious stands at the north of the forest, the extensive block of woodland created by Islands Thorns, Amberwood, Alderhill and Sloden enclosures and sprawling ancient woodland that surrounds them. What a wonderful tract of forest. It's one of those all too rare places where beyond the occasional aerial intrusion the sounds of modernity are absent, here you can really hear the woodland; quiet yourself and let your senses reach out, layer upon layer of sound will be revealed to you. I recommend the walking here, endless path permutations through splendid woodland with more sights and vistas than you could shake a stick at; what's not to like, so atmospheric here too.

Latchmore Brook

Like the other forest streams Latchmore Brook is showing a lot more gravelly bottom than you'd expect for the time of year; it's not so much the exposed gravel itself, the flow of the forest's waterways fluctuate with the weather, it's rather the scale and duration of the exposures;  a reflection of the continuing dry weather.  That aside, the stands through which the brook travels are, in my opinion, some the best woodland walking of the forest; replete with dells and groves all connected by myriad winding paths, it's woodland to lose yourself in.