National Forest of Wales – Return to My Trees

The Romans are Coming – A walk from Wentwood to Caerleon

July 29, 2021July 29, 2021Deforestation, WalksLeave a Comment

I left Curley Oak, the wise tree of Wentwood Forest, and continue west across forestry tracks until I came across a fork in the road. One path headed down a steep ravine while the other carried on straight by the side of the woods. There was a Danger Sign warning that forestry workers were felling trees. However, there was no sound of saws or signs of activity so I kept going straight on the route I’d mapped.

After half a mile I stumbled on an ancient fort. Nowadays all that remains is a raised mound surrounded by oak and ash trees but, according to the OS map, this was Caer Licyn (Caer means fort in Welsh). It was marked as a Motte and Bailey (a style of fortification introduced by the Normans around the 11^th century) but there was also some debate that it might have been a Celtic iron age site. As I stood by the mound, with its view across all the countryside below leading down to the River Severn, I couldn’t help wondering if this might once have been one of the Silurian Celt defences against the Roman invasion?

By the time the Romans came knocking, the Celts of Wales, Ireland and Scotland were the last holdouts against a military machine that had routed all of Europe and most of what we now know as England. In Wales the Celts – many being refugees from Gaul – settled in small agricultural hamlets amid a matrix of oak dominated forests just like Wentwood.

The Roman army probably arrived in Wales about five years after it undertook its concerted pacification of the British Isles. But if the Romans thought they could quickly control this part of Wales they were in for a shock. In a series of guerrilla attacks over a period of five or six years the Silures led by their charismatic leader Caradog (known to the Romans as Caractacus) terrified the Roman forces with a wild dervish-like ferocity.

Even when Caradog was defeated, captured and taken to Rome he so impressed the Emperor Claudius with his bravery (and apparently his gift of the gab) that he was pardoned and freed. Strangely, he chose to live out the rest of his days in Rome rather than returning to south Wales.

His fellow countrymen and women back home didn’t fare so well. The Roman army had been harassed and frustrated for decades by the Celts’ launching raids and ambushes before retreating to their woodland hideaways. In order to destroy the resistance, the Romans decided to cut down the forests and eradicate the Druids who, by now, had retreated to their spiritual stronghold on the island of Mona (what we now call Ynys Mon or Anglesey in English).

They did so by slaughtering everyone on the island and burning to the ground the Druids’ sacred oak groves. From that point on, the Druids disappeared from Welsh history and entered the otherworld of legend. For the next thousand years different generations of poets and antiquarians would seek to rekindle the legacy and lineage of the Druids as you’ll learn if you stick with me on this journey.

But back to this walk. It was time to leave Wentwood behind so I joined the Usk Valley Walk – one of a number of semi-official Long Distance Walking Paths that snake their way through the United Kingdom. Now out of the forest, I could see the River Usk below me taking broad turns to make its way downstream – like a skier making wide slaloms down a mountain.

In the distance was the town of Caerleon. In Roman times it was known as Isca Silurium and was one of the most important strategic forts in all of the British Isles. That’s where I was headed next.

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On the trail of the Druids – A walk through Wentwood Forest

July 27, 2021Walks1 Comment

Wentwood Forest lies a few miles east of Newport, between the historical Roman town of Caerleon and the former Norman stronghold of Chepstow. Today Wentwood is the biggest woodland in southeast Wales and an anchor point for the proposed National Forest of Wales.

So, it made sense to begin my walking adventure here – mapping an imaginary route for the new National Forest. In fact, Wentwood Forest is part of the largest area of ancient woodland anywhere in Wales with a recorded history spanning over 1000 years – though there have been woods covering the area for many thousands more.

Its current parameters constitute just one small part of a vast ancient forest that once covered the land between the rivers Usk and Wye – a forest that was home to some of Wales’ earliest citizens – the Silurian Celts and their fabled mystical leaders, the Druids.

We know very little about how the Silures and their Druid caste lived. One of the only remaining legacies are the many burial mounds, cairns and standing stones dating back to the period when the Druids would have held sway over the Celtic communities.

Before setting off through the forest I decided to climb nearby Gray Hill. It might well have been one of the most important Druidic sites in Wales. On its southern slope is a jagged set of standing stones that, according to antiquarians could be older than Stonehenge.

Today the stone circle is in serious disrepair and most of the stones are no longer standing. However, one famous local writer/historian had no doubt about Gray Hill’s spiritual importance.

His name was Fred Hando. From the 1920s until his death in 1970 Hando wrote more than 800 articles and several books about the history and folklore of this corner of Wales. He was fascinated by the stone circles, positing”

“That the two stones inside the circle aligned to the spring solstice and claimed (completely without evidence of course): “when the ancient observers saw their stones in line with these horizon sunrises and sunsets they were able to advise their agricultural tribesmen what the seasons were. Such knowledge was power!”

Who knows quite how important Gray Hill was to the Druids. What I can tell you is that, today, it offers amazing views of the Severn estuary and the coastline running down from the Severn Bridge all the way to Newport, including the full expanse of the Gwent Levels and even the iconic transporter bridge that towers above Newport docks.

From Gray Hill I wandered east through the forest trails towards Curley Oak. This tree is the oldest in Wentwood. It is estimated to be more than 1000 years old and sits in a part of the forest that feels truly ancient.

Today, much of what we associate with Druids is the stuff of Celtic legends. The main reason we know so little is the lack of a paper trail. The Druids didn’t write down any of their philosophy, teachings or culture – apparently not because they couldn’t write but because they believed that learning through an oral tradition would both create the highest standards of knowledge and also stop that knowledge falling into the hands of their enemies. Indeed, scholars have speculated that it took between 12 and 20 years of study to attain the highest level of Druidic learning – much the way shamans today in the Amazon learn the ways of the forest and continue to pass it down through generations.

What is clear from the earliest descriptions of these important people is a very strong connection to nature, the forests and one species of tree in particular – the oak. Greek scholars in the 2^nd century BC first mention them and, later, Roman writers including Strabo and Pliny the Elder believed the name Druid was derived from the Greek word for oak – drus. Later Celtic etymologists reasoned that the word Druid actually meant oak knowledge. (You can learn more in the Reading List.)

Today, the trees that would have known the Druids’ secrets are long gone but in this old oak section of Wentwood, at least, you sense that the spirit of the forest is still alive.

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Introducing Return To My Trees

July 25, 2021May 14, 2022WalksLeave a Comment

At the height of the Covid 19 pandemic, when we were all in lockdown, I, like so many people, found myself at a loss. My work as a writer had dried up and the only alternative to mooching around the house all day was to get out and walk.

Walking became my coping mechanism – it helped me relax and forget for a while about the situation we all found ourselves caught up in.

To begin with I explored the local parks in my home city of Cardiff. Soon though, I started to venture further afield into the woodlands on the fringes of the city. The more I walked the more I came to appreciate the amazing beauty and complexity of the natural world around me – particularly the trees which, to my shame, I’d never really paid that much attention to before.

Each day I grew more fascinated with the trees around me. I wondered how long they’d been standing, watching over us, and how had they got there in the first place. As I wandered through the woods I couldn’t help wondering: if the trees could think, what would they make of the mess we humans had made of the land we share?

Walking through Pentrebane woods to St. Fagans

The media was full of stories about how we needed to make a fresh start and reboot that relationship if we wanted to prevent further pandemics as well as devastating climate change. The question that no-one seemed to be able to answer was: How do we rebalance our relationship and make peace with nature?

It seemed like we were trapped at present in a liminal state – on the threshold of embracing a better, more sustainable way of living but not able to leave behind our old destructive ways. I felt like I was in a similar liminal state – what I needed was an adventure to shake me out of the fog I found myself.

That’s when I read about a plan to create the National Forest for Wales – an ambitious project that would fight climate change, protect biodiversity and help people get out and experience nature. That gave me an idea. What if I mapped out and walked a potential route for this new National Forest?

Then and there, I decided to embark on a nearly 300-mile walking trip through the forests, woodlands, hillsides and mountains of Wales.

Walking became my coping mechanism. It helped me relax and forget about the situation we all found ourselves in.

So, one Sunday morning, I sat down at my desk with a cup of coffee and started studying a map of Wales so that I could plot a series of walks connecting the forests and woodlands.

I soon found myself diving into the history of the woodlands in Wales and I quickly discovered how deep our relationship with nature once was and how, over the centuries, we had lost that connection.

I learned about the history and causes of deforestation and how centuries of industrialisation had destroyed our relationship to the forests.

I discovered how crucial a role the woodlands and nature played in our folklore and legends – the woodlands of Wales lie at the heart of the stories of King Arthur, the Lady of the Lake, the magical kingdoms of the Mabinogi and the mysterious powers of the Physicians of Myddfai.

And I also saw how the celebration of nature in art and culture by the likes of William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge and JMW Turner helped create not just Victorian tourism but also the modern environmental movement.

Importantly, I also realised how walking through Wales could shine a light on the global issues we need to solve if we truly are to make peace with nature. Systemic issues like affording nature the same legal rights as humans; restructuring our global food system; planting trees in ways that help not hurt the planet; and building the economic value of nature into our financial and economic systems.

Finally, and importantly, I began to realise how important walking in nature is for all our physical and mental well-being and how this journey could help me repair my spirit and shape a new more positive future.

This is the story of my journey through Wales.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be telling you more about individual walks and experience through these posts and this newsletter.

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