Diary from Castle Espie, Northern Ireland
Day 1
It’s the last week of the summer holidays and I can’t believe I’m in Northern Ireland! It’s taken months of preparation to get here, scrambling our brains with the complications of movement of goods between England and Northern Ireland in the wake of Brexit.
Ava travelled with Simon and Aron on a truck loaded of Generation Wild goodies. They set off at 5am for a 15 hour trip that includes an 8 hour ferry from Liverpool to Belfast. It’s calm, plain sailing with truckers cabins for the crossing. After the journey, we had a fabulous fish supper at Daft Eddy’s on Strangford Lough. The twilight lit up the lough in serene beauty.
Day 2
We are up early and out in the woodland at WWT Castle Espie, the lough is shrouded in mist this morning, but the dappled sunlight is piercing through the forest canopy. Everything is lush and green, I squeal with delight at a patch of shamrocks by the edge of the path - they’re the brightest emerald greens I’ve ever seen.
As I wander up the woodland trail in search of the holes where our trail posts will go, I stumble across the biggest mushrooms I’ve ever seen; elfin parasols on a bed of last year's larch leaves. Nearby, fairy doors bear the name of each tree: beech, oak, larch and birch. It’s former plantation land, but Reserve Manager Maurice Turley has been planting to increase biodiversity in recent years. His efforts have led to the arrival of woodpeckers, scarcely seen in Northern Ireland. It feels magical here and I know Ava is going to love it, her nest tucked away in the Larch trees, not so different to how adult Ospreys build their own in the tops of Pines.
Kev gave me a tour of the whole WWT site in his motorised buggy, stopping by a viewpoint just as the mist was clearing. Beyond the lough there’s Newtownards, a settlement on the hill and Scrabbo Tower on the adjacent peak, adorned with wind turbines. Strangford Lough is a tidal seawater lough and Castle Espie used to be a Limestone quarry on it’s banks. There’s an old Limekiln on the reserve which has been renovated into an observatory. The Generation Wild trail will take participants through woodlands, out to the edge of Strangford Lough and across to a sensory garden on the other side of the site.
Day 3
Ava’s nest needed a little mechanical help to get into the wonderful woodlands… it wound its way through the trees and round some tight hairpin bends before settling in amongst a lovely grove of trees. Everyone agreed it's the perfect spot to take a rest!
I went round the trail testing translatorphones and nature activities, ensuring all the interpretation is in place. I already feel very at home here and I know Ava will too. Learning Manager John McCullogh hasn’t said so directly, but I can tell he’s fond of Ava and I think Maurice is too.
Before we packed up our things to leave, Simon Rose gave us a tour of the woodland playground, drawing out it’s natural features with his Landscape Architect’s eye: The Wishing Tree is a beautiful old beech riddled with burrs and laced with pennies; a woodland xylophone gives everyone a chance to make music. The secret swamp has upturned trees, roots exposed as though a giant has been throwing them around . With woven willow and ample den building branches, Castle Espie is a place where children create their own adventures, explore, and play. It feels like a ‘thin place’ as the Irish say, where magic hangs in the air. It’ll suit Ava down to the ground, and up to the sky. There’s plenty of fish to be had from the lough and freshwater pools!
I’ve had a truly marvellous time here in Northern Ireland and hope there’ll be more chances to visit in the future, especially as Generation Wild will run for the next 3 years.