Tags
Dobgill Wood, fungus, Helvellyn, insects, moss, plants, slime mould, Thirlmere Reservoir, wild flowers
This post marks the return of posts about our holiday in the Lake District in July.
We spent an afternoon at Thirlmere, a reservoir which was created in 1894 to provide water for the city of Manchester.
Thirlmere was originally two smaller lakes and in flooding the valley, the two villages of Amboth and Wythburn were submerged. Many people protested about the construction of the reservoir, the philanthropist John Ruskin being one of them, but theirs’ was a lost cause. The citizens of Manchester’s need of fresh water was thought to have been more important than the loss of a couple of villages and a community’s way of life.
Thirlmere is 3.76 miles long and about half a mile wide. It is surrounded by 2000 acres of coniferous forest, mainly spruce and larch, planted in 1908. More deciduous, native trees are being planted now. There was protest at the planting of the forest because the fells were traditionally tree-less and bare.
We parked our car in one of the car-parks off the road that skirts the lake and then walked down to the lakeside through a pretty wood. It was so green and mossy in that wood!
I think the moss may be Polytrichum commune. I read that it has square capsules with pointed lids. These capsules can be seen if you look carefully at my photo.
We soon got to the lake shore where there was a lot more to see. There were plants living amongst the stones ….
…and plants at the edge of the wood.
This plant tastes and smells like hops and in some areas has been used as a substitute for them.
While they sat and relaxed I wandered about looking for plants and other interesting things.
This rock was covered with many different types of moss and lichen.
We then walked back up to the car-park but by a different route.
We returned to the car-park where we left Elinor to rest but Richard and I continued walking as we wanted to see the Dobgill waterfall. I will include that in a different post.
If anyone sees that I have made any mistakes with my identification I would be really grateful for any corrections. If anyone can identify any of the organisms I have been unable to name, again, I would be very pleased to know.
Thanks for visiting!