THE 10 BEST PLACES TO SEE ANCIENT RAINFOREST IN THE UK
BY WILLIAM GRAY | PUBLISHED IN THE TELEGRAPH
Step into a rainforest in the UK and it feels like a green veil has been drawn around you. Everywhere you look something is growing… gnarled tree trunks fuzzed with lichens; damp gullies dripping with ferns; the forest floor thick with spongy moss. Our so-called Atlantic or Celtic rainforest could almost have sprouted straight from the pages of Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
Dating back to the end of the last Ice Age around 12,000 years ago, this mysterious, ancient habitat, restricted to mild and humid pockets in the west, once covered a fifth of the UK – but only 1% remains due to deforestation, grazing, disease and invasive species. Many of the remaining fragments are protected in nature reserves and carefully managed to allow visitors access to this rare biome. Tread gently. You’re entering a realm that’s home to over 700 species of mosses, liverworts and lichens, as well as rare fungi, pine martens, red squirrels and migrant birds like pied flycatchers and wood warblers.
1. Wistman’s Wood
DARTMOOR, DEVON
Hunkered down in a moorland cleft, Wistman’s Wood is a tangle of twisted limbs and jumbled boulders shaggy with moss. When winter mists roll in, it feels primeval and forbidding. But visit in spring and the stunted oaks zing with fresh growth and birdsong. Heed signs to ‘walk around, not through’ the forest to avoid snagging branches and scuffing moss. Instead, sit on the woodland’s edge and fall under its fairy-tale spell.
How to do it: The Dartmoor Explorer bus between Exeter and Gunnislake stops at Two Bridges from where it’s a gentle uphill 1½ -mile walk to reach Wistman’s Wood. The Two Bridges Hotel couldn’t be a more convenient base.
2. Borrowdale Rainforest National Nature Reserve
LAKE DISTRICT, CUMBRIA
Stretching south from Derwentwater, this 721-hectare swathe of Atlantic oakwood is slowly spreading thanks to the work of local tenant farmers. Rarities include tree lungwort, a leafy green lichen. Pied flycatchers arrive in early May, migrating from West Africa to nest in tree holes; the forest floor twitches with colonies of northern hairy wood ants and, with patience, you may spot a red squirrel.
How to do it: The 78 bus runs between Keswick and the Borrowdale Valley, stopping at Bowder Stone Car Park where a two-mile trail weaves through the temperate rainforest of Cummacatta Wood. Borrowdale Gates Hotel is less than a mile away.
3. Taynish National Nature Reserve
ARGYLL, SCOTLAND
Barely 50 miles from Glasgow as the raven flies, Taynish protects one of Europe’s oldest oak rainforests. Cloaking a remote peninsula that dangles into Loch Sween, its growing tally of 475 lichens includes 91 nationally scarce species. Add 250 different mosses and liverworts, plus rarities like the narrow-leaved helleborine, red squirrel and pine marten and you have a veritable Eden.
How to do it: The nearest bus stop (and accommodation) is in Tayvallich about a mile away. Allow two hours to walk the Woodland Trail through Atlantic rainforest before setting off on the Coastal Path in search of otters, white-tailed eagles and marsh fritillary butterflies.
4. Coed Felenrhyd & Llennyrch Celtic Rainforest
ERYRI (SNOWDONIA), GWYNEDD, WALES
This 310-hectare fragment of temperate rainforest has been clinging to the steep banks of the Afon Prysor for thousands of years. With up to 200 days of rain each year, bryophytes (the mosses and liverworts) are in their element here. Look beyond the spring displays of bluebells to find rainforest specialists like barnacle lichen and prostrate signal-moss. Other rarities include the lesser horseshoe bat.
How to do it: Buses using the A496 between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Harlech stop at the Maentwrog power station which is located near the main entrance to the woodland. The 17th-century, six-bedroom Grapes Hotel (grapeshotelsnowdonia.co.uk) is a mile away.
5. Golitha Falls National Nature Reserve
BODMIN, CORNWALL
Flowing through the soft, green underbelly of Bodmin Moor, the River Fowey has carved a gorge through ancient rainforest at Golitha Falls. Festooned in more than 120 species of bryophytes and 50 types of lichen, the reserve’s oak, ash, beech and hazel trees bow over a series of rapids and cascades. Sit quietly and watch for otters squirming through tea-coloured pools or plan a dusk vigil in search of rare bats.
How to do it: A level out-and-back path leads from the car park opposite the reserve entrance about two miles from St Cleer. A 15-minute drive away, Wheal Tor Hotel has far-reaching views from the top of Caradon Hill.
6. Ariundle Oakwood National Nature Reserve
STRONTIAN, LOCH SUNART, SCOTLAND
Cloaking the slopes of Strontian Glen, the ancient moss-covered trees of Ariundle form part of the internationally important Loch Sunart Oakwoods – the largest continuous area of Atlantic rainforest in Britain. A haven for chequered skipper butterflies (extinct in England since the 1970s), these verdant forests shimmer with wood anemones each spring, hence the wood’s Gaelic name Airigh Fhionndail (‘shieling of the white meadow’).
How to do it: The reserve is two miles north of Strontian, an hour’s bus ride from Fort William. A three-mile circular trail follows the Strontian River before climbing into the woodland. The nearby Strontian Hotel looks out across Loch Sunart.
7. Coed Cwm Einion
CEREDIGION, WALES
Hidden in the hills above Cardigan Bay, this remote and bewitching Celtic rainforest hugs steep valley slopes above the tumbling Afon Einion. Of its 177 species of lichen, the grey-green, lettuce-like Parmotrema robustum is the rarest – found only at three other sites in Britain. Lying at the heart of Dyfi Biosphere Reserve, you can combine rainforest rambles with wildlife forays in the Ynyslas dunes and Cors Fochno peat bogs.
How to do it: Park in the village of Furnace and follow the 3½ -mile Furnace Circular or Artist’s Valley trail into the rainforest. Eight miles to the north, Machynlleth is a good base. Try the Wynnstay for a traditional inn right in the centre of the market town.
8. Ardura Community Forest
ISLE OF MULL, SCOTLAND
Central to island life for countless generations, Ardura Forest has long been a source of shelter, timber and firewood – but now the Mull and Iona Community Trust aims to restore this Atlantic rainforest by removing invasive rhododendron and Sitka spruce, plant native trees and conserve globally-threatened species like the hazel gloves fungus with its finger-like lobes. By visiting you can support seed collecting, tree planting and wildlife monitoring.
How to do it: Drive 15 minutes south from Craignure ferry terminal to reach the forest parking area. A gentle, two-hour walk follows the River Lussa and dips into the wildwood. The cosy Craignure Inn overlooks the Sound of Mull.
9. Fingle Woods
TEIGN VALLEY, DEVON
Running for over six miles along Dartmoor’s Teign Valley, Fingle Woods is one of England’s largest woodland restoration projects. Wildlife is making a comeback in this leafy mosaic of temperate rainforest, wet woodland and heathland – look out for otters, dormice, pied flycatchers and kingfishers. The views from Hunter’s Path reveal a patchwork of recovering rainforest stretching across the gorge.
How to do it: Follow Hunter’s Path from Castle Drogo to Fingle Bridge, before looping back on the Fisherman’s Path next to the River Teign – a four-mile circuit. A couple of miles away, in Chagford, Mill End Hotel is also within walking distance of the woods.
10. Uig Wood
ISLE OF SKYE, SCOTLAND
Hike to the waterfall at the head of Rha Glen in this far-flung woodland on Skye’s northwest coast and it can feel like you’ve stumbled upon a lost tropical world. The sheltered, humid microclimate nurtures thick growths of mosses, liverworts and lichens that cling to the trees and rocks like the rampant epiphytes of equatorial jungles. More than a thousand species have been recorded in and around the wood, from flatworms to white-tailed eagles.
How to do it: Start from Uig Community Hall and follow the waymarked Rha Glen trail to the waterfall. Paths can be steep, muddy and uneven. Buses run between Portree and Uig where accommodation includes the 11-bedroom Uig Hotel.
The Rainforest Revival
On Dartmoor, the Duchy of Cornwall has pledged to double rainforest habitat around Black-a-Tor Copse and Wistman’s Wood by 2040, helping ancient forest regenerate naturally. Elsewhere, Borrowdale has been designated England’s largest rainforest national nature reserve, while major restoration projects are under way in Devon and Scotland. From planting tens of thousands of native trees to reconnecting fragmented woodland, these initiatives suggest that one of the world’s rarest forest habitats is making a slow, but steady comeback.