Kielder Forest 30th/31st May 2019


At Kielder Castle
I wanted to visit the exhibition upstairs, but the room is full of men in suits sitting in rows. The boy in the cafe says they'll be out in twenty minutes. There's an interesting looking exhibition up there about the history of the forest, which I wanted to see, but instead I am here writing before I have anything to write about. I planned to write after I had seen it.

Earlier we went for a walk. The forest is magical. Conifers and moss - so green and wet, so different from Tangham which I also love, but this is a different thing. It's a wet day. For most of our walk the rain was holding off, but mist was hanging over the trees. I'm repeating myself, but it really does feel like there's some other world under those trees. The forest is new, but the stories are forming. The magical beings are moving in. The giants can live here, moving the trees as though they were matchsticks.






We went to the Skyspace - a circular building with a roof you can look through to see the stars, or where you can shelter from the rain to eat your lunch. There were some cyclists in there and I chatted to them. One of them showed me a photo of himself standing in the circle of sunlight coming through the roof on a sunny day, arms and legs stretched out to the edges of the circle, so he was a mandala, or maybe a mercedes benz logo. They loved the Skyspace. They said one year they came up on Hallowe'en, at night, and as they approached there was a thumping bass and lights and there was a party going on.








The exhibition upstairs has photos from the history of Kielder, including photos of things that have gone wrong. I hope the men aren't there forever.

I like Kielder. I'd like to come when the sky is clear so I can see the stars. This week has been too cloudy.

Rob lives on the outskirts on Newcastle and drives in everyday, which takes 40 minutes. Yesterday he had a terrible migraine, had taken strong medication, and said he was working at only ten percent.

The roe deer are culled and their bodies kept in a lockup outside Kielder village. They are gutted (another word?), then they're sold to butchers or individuals, whole and ready for butchery.

For the rest of the day there will be rain, this evening heavy rain. We're going to eat at the pub again, then tomorrow we drive home. First we're going along Kielder Water, to get an feel for the length of it, to see the dam. It's been a green damp week of loveliness. I'm going to see if I can go upstairs yet.

Seen the exhibition now. it's really interesting - the community - the tiny made villages - Kielder, Stonehaugh, Plashetts - the people who came to live here, who started it. Pioneers. Hard graft. Building a future.

Day Five - Wild Walk











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