Looking for bluebells in the Charnwood Forest

Saturday 19th May 2018

Every year I like to do a walk through the Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire to see bluebells. I will usually use my Charnwood Forest Round for this, which is a walk that I devised some years ago and now do several times every year as a way of keeping my hillwalking fitness up, and passes through a few ancient woodlands that rejoice in bluebells in the spring. Last year I was delayed in doing my annual bluebell walk by being in the Lake District at the beginning of May, and when I was back I decided to do vary the walk by drawing inspiration from the National Forest Way and another bluebell walk that I did in 2017 that took in the three peaks of Leicestershire. However last year was very different to previous years and hot weather over the bank holiday weekend had sent the bluebells to seed very quickly despite a late appearance due to the late winter. Therefore the flowering period for bluebells last year was very short, which is a shame and severely affected this walk. Setting off from the village of Woodhouse Eaves on the course of the National Forest Way I could already see that the bluebells were going to seed and the prospects for the walk seemed bleak, though the weather was fabulous with cloudless skies and bright sunshine all day.

After passing through Swithland Woods I came into Bradgate Park where I found a welcome array of bluebells still shining in the full vigour of youth, late developers that had escaped the scorching weather earlier in the month. Climbing to the top of Old John I passed the folly and war memorial and descended into Newtown Linford continuing along the National Forest Way on a path that was decorated with stitchworts. A private wood to the right of the path had a great covering of bluebells with many still in good condition and only just past their peak so they were producing a splendid display. Being a private wood with no public access helps enormously in preventing bluebells being trampled underfoot by people eager to get a closer look, and I had to be content with staying on the other side of a barbed wire fence. The path continues through some wild flower meadows to reach Lady Hay Wood where I found a glade that was filled with bluebells, just as I’d remembered the previous year. Despite many of the bluebells starting to go to seed there was a fantastic display that was made even more special by the sunshine, which was a welcome change from the rain that had accompanied me when I had been at this spot the year before.

Continuing on the National Forest Way I crossed the busy A50 and entered Martinshaw Wood, which has never produced spectacular displays of bluebells in my experience, although I did find splendid displays of stitchworts. Soon after entering the wood I took a wide path that follows the northern edge of the wood, but soon I decided to abandon that and return to the National Forest Way, but I’m not particularly familiar with the layout of Martinshaw Wood so instead of heading south I actually headed west, which was completely the wrong direction. Eventually I came to the corner where the M1 motorway cuts the wood in two, and from that point I followed the fence beside the roar of the passing cars and lorries until I reached the bridge at the south-eastern edge where I finally managed to return to the National Forest Way. Now I stuck to the trail all the way through to Burroughs Wood where I was greeted by a great bank of cow parsley and red campion, but the bluebells had completely gone to seed and were no longer in flower, which was very disillusioning for me and left me with the realisation that it wasn’t worth my looking for for anymore bluebells on this walk.

However, there were still plenty of other wild flowers to me to see with cow parsley overgrowing the path beyond Burroughs Wood. As I continued along the trail stitchworts and red campion delighted me all the way to Thornton Reservoir, where the fields at the foot of the dam were filled with dandelion seed heads and buttercups adding to the beautiful scene that was reminiscent of last year. After passing the reservoir I finally turned off the National Forest Way (and my walk of last year) to follow the route of the Leicestershire Round along a path that I have not taken for many years so I was unsure of the route, although it proved to be pretty easy. After passing through Markfield I joined the route of my familiar Charnwood Forest Round passing bluebells in Ulverscroft Wood that were so far gone that it was quite depressing to realise I’d missed them at their best. Later I had a similar story in the Outwoods that are usually filled with bluebells at this time of the year but were now in a sorry state.

I had suspected I would see poor displays of bluebells and in fact these just seemed to get worse as the walk progressed, although I had hoped the late winter would have preserved them, but that had worked in only a small number of exposed locations. It is a pity I couldn’t enjoy this walk for it was rather than for what it didn’t have. I had fabulous weather and a great display of wild flowers including the red campion pictured above, but that was not what I had come out to see.