The forest

Last updated: 2 December 2005

Forestry now occupies much of the ground that once served the colliery and the farms. From 1946 the Forestry Commission took men on throughout the upper valley, among them men lately returned from service. Forestry, the pit and the stone have since been the ordinary work of the place. Sitka spruce and larch take the plantable slopes. Along the burns, and on the steeper sides that were never worth a crop, older woodland has been left: oak, birch, rowan, and alder in the wet. The rides are the walking. In high summer they hold the sound; a party fifty yards off is a murmur. In October the larch turns, and the same rides are a different country.

Some of the planting is commercial, and walkers should treat forest operations as they would on any working estate: follow the marked line, and give way to vehicles. The Green Man Trail is the parish walk and is waymarked from the centre. Other paths toward the Kielder edge are maintained by the forestry interests and by other bodies. This office can say whether a path was open when last we walked it. The forest as a whole is larger than the parish, and we are glad of it.

Red squirrels are still seen in this forest. Crossbills work the cones. In the open, on a good day, you may hear a curlew. Ticks are present in season; ordinary care on the legs is enough. Fires are not permitted. Dogs should be kept up where young plantation is signed, and on the approach to Seldom Seen, which is a private row.

In winter the same rides can be indistinct after snow; see in winter. Conditions change with the weather and with the work of the forest. The eastern continuation of the parish trail is a longer outing and is described with the eastern loop.