Site in Pembrokeshire currently grazed by sheep will be planted with a range of species and reconnect to Celtic past
Steven Morris
Mon 15 Jul 2024 00.00 EDT
A lost piece of Celtic rainforest in the far south-west of Wales is to be restored to its ancient glory, weaving around standing stones and an abandoned, tumbling-down farmhouse with a waterwheel.
The 59-hectare (146-acre) site in Pembrokeshire will be planted with species such as oak, small-leaf lime and wild service (Sorbus torminalis) and should support an abundance of mosses, liverworts, lichens and ferns as well as providing a home for animals and other plant life.
Its southern tip will connect to remnants of the Celtic rainforest in the Gwaun valley while in the north it runs on to open moorland.
Adam Dawson, a senior conservation officer at the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, said the Gwaun valley was a very special part of Wales. “It’s got an ancient feel to it,” he said.
The new trees will be planted around two standing stones, so it will look as if the monuments are positioned in clearings that might have been created by prehistoric people.
•
Pontfaen Woods in Gwaun valley. Photograph: Joan Gravell/Alamy
Dawson said: “It will probably look not dissimilar to neolithic times when our ancestors were first creating woodland clearings. It’s bringing it back to what happened before we got so clever and became too sedentary, when we were still relatively nomadic.
“I think that’s a time in history when we were very much connected with the landscape and connected with the seasons and our lives were very much dictated by those. We respected nature in a way that we’ve lost sight of.”
At the moment the site, two miles inland from Fishguard, has little diversity, with nearly all fields being of semi-improved rye grassland that is grazed by sheep. Not all of the site will be planted with rainforest species: wet areas rich in wildlife and plant life will be left alone.
British rainforests grow in areas that have high rainfall and humidity and a low annual variation in temperature. They have been largely destroyed and now cover less than 1% of the land.
The project at Trellwyn Fach is part of the Wildlife Trusts’ 100-year Atlantic rainforest recovery programme, which is supported by a £38m donation from the insurance company Aviva.
Dawson said he hoped that within a few decades it would look like a natural woodland. He said: “The aim is somebody walking through the site in 30 to 50 years’ time won’t say ‘I wonder who planted this’. People will say ‘what a lovely place’.”
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Steven Morris
Mon 15 Jul 2024 00.00 EDT
A lost piece of Celtic rainforest in the far south-west of Wales is to be restored to its ancient glory, weaving around standing stones and an abandoned, tumbling-down farmhouse with a waterwheel.
The 59-hectare (146-acre) site in Pembrokeshire will be planted with species such as oak, small-leaf lime and wild service (Sorbus torminalis) and should support an abundance of mosses, liverworts, lichens and ferns as well as providing a home for animals and other plant life.
Its southern tip will connect to remnants of the Celtic rainforest in the Gwaun valley while in the north it runs on to open moorland.
Adam Dawson, a senior conservation officer at the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, said the Gwaun valley was a very special part of Wales. “It’s got an ancient feel to it,” he said.
The new trees will be planted around two standing stones, so it will look as if the monuments are positioned in clearings that might have been created by prehistoric people.
•
Pontfaen Woods in Gwaun valley. Photograph: Joan Gravell/Alamy
Dawson said: “It will probably look not dissimilar to neolithic times when our ancestors were first creating woodland clearings. It’s bringing it back to what happened before we got so clever and became too sedentary, when we were still relatively nomadic.
“I think that’s a time in history when we were very much connected with the landscape and connected with the seasons and our lives were very much dictated by those. We respected nature in a way that we’ve lost sight of.”
At the moment the site, two miles inland from Fishguard, has little diversity, with nearly all fields being of semi-improved rye grassland that is grazed by sheep. Not all of the site will be planted with rainforest species: wet areas rich in wildlife and plant life will be left alone.
British rainforests grow in areas that have high rainfall and humidity and a low annual variation in temperature. They have been largely destroyed and now cover less than 1% of the land.
The project at Trellwyn Fach is part of the Wildlife Trusts’ 100-year Atlantic rainforest recovery programme, which is supported by a £38m donation from the insurance company Aviva.
Dawson said he hoped that within a few decades it would look like a natural woodland. He said: “The aim is somebody walking through the site in 30 to 50 years’ time won’t say ‘I wonder who planted this’. People will say ‘what a lovely place’.”
This is what we're up against
Teams of lawyers from the rich and powerful trying to stop us publishing stories they don’t want you to see.
Lobby groups with opaque funding who are determined to undermine facts about the climate emergency and other established science.
Authoritarian states with no regard for the freedom of the press.
Bad actors spreading disinformation online to undermine democracy.
***
But we have something powerful on our side.
We’ve got you.
The Guardian is funded by its readers and the only person who decides what we publish is our editor.
If you want to join us in our mission to share independent, global journalism to the world, we’d love to have you on side.
Please choose to support us today. It only takes a minute and you can cancel at any time. Thank you.
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