A winter walk in Hermand Wood

Stepping out of my car and onto the wooden boardwalk, coated in white from last night’s light snowfall, feels like stepping onto a conveyor, leading into a realm of tranquillity. 

Quickly, I find myself amongst gnarled and lichen-encrusted birch, standing old and wise, like sentinels of a faery kingdom. A small flock of chaffinches alights in the branches above my head and carry out a cursory inspection of my progress.

Hermand Wood, near West Calder, is a hidden gem lies within an otherwise unremarkable landscape of open farm fields and commercial conifer plantations, a mere stone’s throw from the bustle of the central belt.

Despite the snow I am sure of foot on the boardwalk’s mesh covering, and grateful too for the elevation above saturated ground. In places the walkway bridges ditches and dark pools, whose still waters mirror the bare trunks and branches above, as if they are thrusting downward into a mysterious parallel underworld. In those short sections where I traverse snow-covered mud, the surface is partially frozen and I am pleasantly rewarded with a sensation not unlike stepping into the most delicious chocolate pudding, dusted in icing sugar. The forest floor is a jumble of fallen trees and branches, their wood now supporting a variety of bracket fungi, mosses and lichens. In summer, blaeberries will shine like dark pearls from the low brush and the foliage will resonate with the hum of hoverflies. For now, the bushy undergrowth has receded, and ragged stumps punctuate the carpet of frosted green and brown, some like peculiar creatures peering at me above the tufts.

Forming a brief circuit which can be completed in around twenty-five minutes (although I recommend taking an hour) the walk skirts round to the far edge of the wood, the fields visible beyond. Here, tall scots pine are mixed in with the birch and on one of these I spot a treecreeper spiralling upwards, constantly probing the crevices of the bark with its slightly curved bill, before descending to start anew on an adjacent trunk.

Another, more distant, movement in my peripheral vision grabs my attention and I turn to see a roe deer step nimbly and with caution on limbs like young willow stems. It regards me for a moment before bounding over the fence to melt into the vegetation beyond. Using a stile to follow suit I take the next section of path which runs parallel to a water channel where a copse of alder enjoy the saturated conditions. Further along there are beech too and, looking directly upwards into the branches of one of these, I am cheered by the site of foraging goldfinches - the smallest of all European birds, with a thin trill call like the flourish of a tiny violin. I watch as they dangle inverted from distal twigs, pecking amongst the few remaining husks of beech mast. To my right, a wren flits past and disappears, Alice-like, into a cavity in the root mass of a fallen tree.

The final stretch of the walk is across the more open ground of a marsh-meadow, the afternoon winter sun casting a weak warmth upon my back. This reminds me that in a few short months this meadow will harbour an array of chest-high grasses and wildflowers together with a host of attendant invertebrates. As I contemplate the scene, a buzzard, with slow flaps of broad wings, rises from between clumps of compact rushes to perch in a tree by the road.

By the time I make my return journey, the wind turbines have come to a standstill and the eastern horizon is a glowing seam of bright amber. Back home, on my map I struggle to pinpoint the wood. It’s tiny; the tree cover would fit easily within the area of one of the surrounding fields. Zooming out, it is quickly lost amongst the patchwork of pasture, road and town. Yet, when I think of my walk, the life I witnessed, and its calming, restorative effect, the power of such spaces hits home. How wonderful it would be to have more places like Hermand Wood.

Hermand Birchwood is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, situated on a raised bog and is managed by the Scottish Wildlife Trust. For more information visit: https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/reserve/hermand-birchwood

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Published in Konect February 2022

Author: William Weir

All photos by William Weir