​At 9.30am on the Saturday morning we set off from our cosy National Trust stone bunk barn for a 30 minute walk to the work site. This allowed us to warm up for the task ahead and enjoy the delightful surroundings of Upper Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales. 

The site was on a steeply sloping hillside in the trees. Our task was to cut back laurel to help stop its domination of the hillside. Even previously cut logs left in piles had put down roots and started growing again!!

We eventually got two bonfires going. We had lovely views through the trees across the valley with sunshine playing on the hills opposite. We struck lucky too with good weather and enjoyed a great first day. We left the two fires in a safe condition to smoulder overnight. 

Later we all tucked in to an all vegetarian meal of pasta and ratatouille followed by fruit pies, custard and cream. The gentlemen retired with their pipes to the smoking room and played billiards whilst the ladies played bridge in the lounge. (Ah, Nicola please strike these last two sentences. I was typing my new novel and these lines got pasted into the wrong document…!) ​

When we'd arrived on the previous Friday evening a lot of us hadn't turned in until after midnight. However shortly after 9pm on the Saturday most of us were heading for the hay! We put it down to the full day’s work and also to the effects of cyanide. Cyanide I hear you cry?!  Burning laurel does apparently release small amounts of this gas. However we were assured that it was safe to burn and that quantities of gas released are way below levels that could be harmful. No, I think it was the day’s work and large meal that made for the early night.

​The following day we were able to get the fires going again just from the heat of the ashes left overnight.  Laurel is a dense wood and therefore burns slowly. We soon found that 2 people cutting to 8 people processing, dragging and burning was the right ratio. Once finished we then enjoyed a walk through the woods to explore a gorge we had been told about by the N.T. warden, Peter, who we had been working for.  We saw some exotic trees – giant weeping beeches and Wellingtonia. The wood, known as Redmire Wood, was planted up around 1858 with about 45,000 trees. It was owned by Isabella Ramsden, the widow of Sir John Charles Ramsden who had bought it in 1831.

All in all it was a great weekend and this location will certainly go on the list of those we might well return to in the future.
Jonathan