Charnwood Forest is a special place. Special in the woo-woo sense of the word. And that’s not woo-woo in the sense of Deacon Blue (God forbid), or even a woo-woo in the more pleasing vein of The KLF.
This woo-woo is a feeling of something more awesome and intangible. Something archaic and immense; like the immutable heavyweights of nature and history binding together in a timeless embrace.
Charnwood Forest is the woo-woo epicentre. When your in the vicinity of those beautiful leafy villages which tumble out of the rocks of north west Leicestershire, you get a little bit of a buzz going; a vibration from the earth
Around here you will find the oldest fossils in the world. And, as far as I’m aware, there’s only a hill range in Australia which can claim the same thing. These long dormant volcanic rocks contain the petrified remains of our earliest ancestors, the first multicellular organisms.
In later years the pagans gathered here and it’s easy to see why. The place is drenched from head to toe in woo-woos. There’s a mesmeric view from Ulverscroft in mid autumn which shows the patchwork tree canopy of the forest in hues of red, gold, orange and green.
Here are a few recent pix of Beacon Hill and Bradgate Park.
