Holystone Burn

The area surrounding the Holystone Burn is one I return to regularly, not least because the panoramas across the upland moorland are beautiful at almost any time of year, and certainly enhance my drive to the shops in Rothbury. Here we see the view towards Simonside in July, looking across the semi-natural woodland alongside the burn ...


And here in late August, when the air is thick with the smell of honey from the fine sweep of heather, left ungrazed for many years ...


And finally here, during my visit last week, when the autumn colour in both the trees and the decaying bracken was at its best and the distant Simonside was obscured by driving rain ...


The land, which is owned by Forest Enterprises, is managed jointly with the Northumberland Wildlife Trust as a reserve and I hoped to find some interesting fungi in the woods. Sadly, there were not as many to be found as I might have liked ...

Brown Birch Bolete (Leccinum scabrum)
Jelly Rot (Plebia tremellosa)
Stag's Horn or Candle-snuff Fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon)
The Pixie Cup Lichen (Cladonia pyxidata)
And during the walk, the Holystone Burn, glimpsed here through the trees, ripples along in the background ...