Читать книгу The Dales Way. From Ilkley to the Lake District through the Yorkshire Dales онлайн

45 страница из 47

STRID WOOD

You don’t have to be a trained naturalist to recognise immediately that Strid Wood is somewhere quite special, and almost certainly unique. It will be a rare occasion if you have the woods to yourself, for their heavily laden beauty and powerful natural qualities draw people from far and near to potter about among moss-covered grottoes, banks of fern, trees, rock formations and cascading water. Strid Wood is magnificent at all times of the year, but exceptional in spring and autumn, the one when the many wild flowers that colonise this narrow sanctum are bursting through; the other when the burnished bronze colours are at their most intense.

In the 16th century, the forests of Skipton and Knaresborough met here at the River Wharfe, and it used to be said that a squirrel could travel all the way between the two towns without touching the ground. Strid Wood’s position in a deep gorge made it unsuitable as farmland, and so protected it from the tree clearances that occurred on the surrounding land.