START YOUR WALK AT THE STRAW BALE
HOUSE
With its fine views over the valley and left towards Charmouth, this is a good place from which to spot the many different birds at Monkton Wyld Court: chaffinch, goldfinch, goldcrest, blackbird, magpie, wagtails and warblers close to the ground; kestrels, buzzards and crows overhead; seagulls over the fields. You can hear the dawn chorus and also our tuneful cockerel! In summer swallows swoop over the meadows and in and out of the cowsheds. By the house are examples of simple ways to provide a variety of habitats in a small garden: a tyre pond with herb spiral, and two tyre gardens, currently planted with pumpkins and nasturtiums.
1 FOREST GARDEN On the south-facing slope below the straw bale house we are developing a forest garden, which copies the many layers of a natural forest with plants useful to us. So far we have apple trees, bush fruit and strawberries – with more layers to come. The electric fence is turned on at night to protect our very young trees from being nibbled by the many deer in the area.
Leave the forest garden through the gate and make your way downhill. Fork right off the track and follow the grassy path down towards the pond.
2 NEW HEDGE Stop at the corner of the new mixed hedge. On your right, looking west, you can see along its double row of native species (alder, ash, blackthorn, broom, cherry plum, crab apple, guelder rose, hawthorn, sea buckthorn, spindle). These are planted on the contour of the slope to catch the water and nutrients that flow downhill. Ahead of you, to the south, you can see the newly-dug pond.
Carry on downhill by the next section of electric fence. This protects an area of three young oak and lime trees surrounded by plantings of other trees like alder, ash and hazel which will be coppiced (cut as ‘polewood’ at regular intervals) on, for example, 5 or 7 year cycles. On your left, to the east, is our reed bed sewage system (which uses natural methods to treat all the waste water from the site) and its surrounding orchard.
Follow the path around towards the pond. On the way down you will see the dark green clumps of common rush that indicate wet and boggy ground. Make your way downhill to the bench under the young oak tree.
3 POND The pond was dug in the summer of 2009. We have enclosed it with a long ‘habitat heap’ to help us establish a hedge. With its island of willow trees, the pond has already attracted dragonflies and many birds including mallard, heron, swallows and wagtails. Frogs have returned to the area after all the recent disturbance. Over the coming months the pond will be colonised naturally by native plants both in and around the edges of the water, and in time it will become a home for fish too.
In the surrounding area we have herb-rich meadows with a great variety of grasses and many wild flowers. For example you may see Purple Knapweed, Buttercups, White Yarrow, and Yellow Ragwort which provides food for the black and yellow striped Cinnabar moth caterpillar. Crickets and grasshoppers abound.
4 WILLOW Follow the path downhill, by the overflow from the pond, towards the stream which you can hear along our southern boundary. In summer you can admire the Gunnera, a non-native plant with gigantic leaves and an alien-looking flower spike; in winter this dies back to a heap of blackened vegetation. Here a fallen willow tree has regenerated into a natural fence. Nearby you can see coppiced alder and willow which have regrown rapidly since being cut in the spring of 2009.
In this area goldfinches may be seen feeding on the thistle heads; bullfinches and chaffinches may be nearby. Pink and white Himalayan Balsam, pale mauve Creeping Thistle (which smells like honey) and dark blue Scabious all grow here.
5 LIME Continue westwards along the trail (on a badger thoroughfare). There is Yellow Trefoil in the grass and, in early summer, Ragged Robin with its tattered bright pink petals. You can see tall purple Marsh Thistles here, a large patch of Comfrey, and tiny white Stitchwort. Go under the big ash to the stream and the large lime trees by the bridge at the corner of our site. Listen to the water as it flows through the tunnel under the road (otters have been seen on this stream). There are ferns on the opposite bank, fungi on the trees and multi-stemmed hazels, which are examples of ‘stored’ (old unharvested) coppice.
Emerge from the overhanging branches to follow the trail north along our boundary with the road, under the great beech and oak, and start uphill. Go past another great lime, with ash and sycamore along the roadside.
6 FIELD MAPLE Stop at the big yew and turn right into the grove of field maples, planted in the 1980s below an old field boundary with its ancient holly. From the clearing you can see across the valley where you have been. Wild flowers in this area include Red Campion, Cranesbill, Lords-and-Ladies, Foxglove, Cow Parsley and Enchanter’s Nightshade. There is also Salad Burnet and Burdock with its ‘sticky buds’. Robins may be heard singing here, wood pigeons calling and wrens being amazingly noisy for their size.
Follow the path uphill, past many beautiful types of fern. Some Hypericum has escaped from the garden on to this path. You will see more ‘garden escape’ plants, very well-established laurel and rhododendron, all the way up the path from now on.
7 ASH From this clearing you can see the fenced-off coppice area that is being developed around the three young lime and oak trees. Look up at the ancient twin oaks in the meadow above which are 450 to 500 years old. You can also glimpse the roof and chimneys of ‘the old Court’.
Carry on uphill past a big yew on the roadside, two great oaks and around the huge beech tree to where the ground levels off by a smaller yew tree. This is one of the favourite areas for our bushcraft groups.
8 REDWOOD The tall coast redwood, with its interesting little cones on the end of the leaves, is one of the magnificent non-native trees to be seen at this part of the walk, where we benefit from the ornamental plantings of the 19th century.
9 WALNUT Come out through the poplars, with their leaves rustling in the breeze, onto the football pitch/camping field. Notice the great Monterey pine ahead of you (one of the biggest in the country) with its well-loved swing. Turn right along the fence line and look down this time onto the ancient twin oaks. You can hear and maybe see green woodpeckers feeding, and magpies fighting with the song thrushes in the young walnut tree. Inside the large patch of rhododendrons at the foot of the lawn terraces generations of children have constructed platforms for playing on: climb with care, please!
Go past the young red oak to the little gate at the left end of the main house. Go through to the drive and notice oak, birch and the avenue of great beech trees in the woodland above. Turn right and return along the drive to the Straw Bale House where you will find displays and more detailed information.
With its fine views over the valley and left towards Charmouth, this is a good place from which to spot the many different birds at Monkton Wyld Court: chaffinch, goldfinch, goldcrest, blackbird, magpie, wagtails and warblers close to the ground; kestrels, buzzards and crows overhead; seagulls over the fields. You can hear the dawn chorus and also our tuneful cockerel! In summer swallows swoop over the meadows and in and out of the cowsheds. By the house are examples of simple ways to provide a variety of habitats in a small garden: a tyre pond with herb spiral, and two tyre gardens, currently planted with pumpkins and nasturtiums.
1 FOREST GARDEN On the south-facing slope below the straw bale house we are developing a forest garden, which copies the many layers of a natural forest with plants useful to us. So far we have apple trees, bush fruit and strawberries – with more layers to come. The electric fence is turned on at night to protect our very young trees from being nibbled by the many deer in the area.
Leave the forest garden through the gate and make your way downhill. Fork right off the track and follow the grassy path down towards the pond.
2 NEW HEDGE Stop at the corner of the new mixed hedge. On your right, looking west, you can see along its double row of native species (alder, ash, blackthorn, broom, cherry plum, crab apple, guelder rose, hawthorn, sea buckthorn, spindle). These are planted on the contour of the slope to catch the water and nutrients that flow downhill. Ahead of you, to the south, you can see the newly-dug pond.
Carry on downhill by the next section of electric fence. This protects an area of three young oak and lime trees surrounded by plantings of other trees like alder, ash and hazel which will be coppiced (cut as ‘polewood’ at regular intervals) on, for example, 5 or 7 year cycles. On your left, to the east, is our reed bed sewage system (which uses natural methods to treat all the waste water from the site) and its surrounding orchard.
Follow the path around towards the pond. On the way down you will see the dark green clumps of common rush that indicate wet and boggy ground. Make your way downhill to the bench under the young oak tree.
3 POND The pond was dug in the summer of 2009. We have enclosed it with a long ‘habitat heap’ to help us establish a hedge. With its island of willow trees, the pond has already attracted dragonflies and many birds including mallard, heron, swallows and wagtails. Frogs have returned to the area after all the recent disturbance. Over the coming months the pond will be colonised naturally by native plants both in and around the edges of the water, and in time it will become a home for fish too.
In the surrounding area we have herb-rich meadows with a great variety of grasses and many wild flowers. For example you may see Purple Knapweed, Buttercups, White Yarrow, and Yellow Ragwort which provides food for the black and yellow striped Cinnabar moth caterpillar. Crickets and grasshoppers abound.
4 WILLOW Follow the path downhill, by the overflow from the pond, towards the stream which you can hear along our southern boundary. In summer you can admire the Gunnera, a non-native plant with gigantic leaves and an alien-looking flower spike; in winter this dies back to a heap of blackened vegetation. Here a fallen willow tree has regenerated into a natural fence. Nearby you can see coppiced alder and willow which have regrown rapidly since being cut in the spring of 2009.
In this area goldfinches may be seen feeding on the thistle heads; bullfinches and chaffinches may be nearby. Pink and white Himalayan Balsam, pale mauve Creeping Thistle (which smells like honey) and dark blue Scabious all grow here.
5 LIME Continue westwards along the trail (on a badger thoroughfare). There is Yellow Trefoil in the grass and, in early summer, Ragged Robin with its tattered bright pink petals. You can see tall purple Marsh Thistles here, a large patch of Comfrey, and tiny white Stitchwort. Go under the big ash to the stream and the large lime trees by the bridge at the corner of our site. Listen to the water as it flows through the tunnel under the road (otters have been seen on this stream). There are ferns on the opposite bank, fungi on the trees and multi-stemmed hazels, which are examples of ‘stored’ (old unharvested) coppice.
Emerge from the overhanging branches to follow the trail north along our boundary with the road, under the great beech and oak, and start uphill. Go past another great lime, with ash and sycamore along the roadside.
6 FIELD MAPLE Stop at the big yew and turn right into the grove of field maples, planted in the 1980s below an old field boundary with its ancient holly. From the clearing you can see across the valley where you have been. Wild flowers in this area include Red Campion, Cranesbill, Lords-and-Ladies, Foxglove, Cow Parsley and Enchanter’s Nightshade. There is also Salad Burnet and Burdock with its ‘sticky buds’. Robins may be heard singing here, wood pigeons calling and wrens being amazingly noisy for their size.
Follow the path uphill, past many beautiful types of fern. Some Hypericum has escaped from the garden on to this path. You will see more ‘garden escape’ plants, very well-established laurel and rhododendron, all the way up the path from now on.
7 ASH From this clearing you can see the fenced-off coppice area that is being developed around the three young lime and oak trees. Look up at the ancient twin oaks in the meadow above which are 450 to 500 years old. You can also glimpse the roof and chimneys of ‘the old Court’.
Carry on uphill past a big yew on the roadside, two great oaks and around the huge beech tree to where the ground levels off by a smaller yew tree. This is one of the favourite areas for our bushcraft groups.
8 REDWOOD The tall coast redwood, with its interesting little cones on the end of the leaves, is one of the magnificent non-native trees to be seen at this part of the walk, where we benefit from the ornamental plantings of the 19th century.
9 WALNUT Come out through the poplars, with their leaves rustling in the breeze, onto the football pitch/camping field. Notice the great Monterey pine ahead of you (one of the biggest in the country) with its well-loved swing. Turn right along the fence line and look down this time onto the ancient twin oaks. You can hear and maybe see green woodpeckers feeding, and magpies fighting with the song thrushes in the young walnut tree. Inside the large patch of rhododendrons at the foot of the lawn terraces generations of children have constructed platforms for playing on: climb with care, please!
Go past the young red oak to the little gate at the left end of the main house. Go through to the drive and notice oak, birch and the avenue of great beech trees in the woodland above. Turn right and return along the drive to the Straw Bale House where you will find displays and more detailed information.
Download the colour brochure here.
The Wyldside Walk
In a GreenPrints Flagship project funded by the Sita Trust, a nature trail around Monkton's grounds has been designed and created to explore and enjoy our diverse natural habitats. The Wyldside Walk was officially opened on 27 September, 2009. Check out our Opening Day photos on flickr or enjoy this visual tour:
In a GreenPrints Flagship project funded by the Sita Trust, a nature trail around Monkton's grounds has been designed and created to explore and enjoy our diverse natural habitats. The Wyldside Walk was officially opened on 27 September, 2009. Check out our Opening Day photos on flickr or enjoy this visual tour: