A Walk Amongst the Bluebells

Yesterday was my monthly walk with my walking group. This month we chose a walk that took us through extensive bluebell woods. An ideal location for this time of year. We started from a small village on the edge of Bristol called Portbury. It is only a very short distance from the M5 junction for Portishead and in fact the hum of the motorway is very audible at the beginning and end of the walk.

We started by climbing up out of the village through fields with woods of bluebells on either side. It became more open with isolated trees as we climbed further up. The views were fantastic looking back towards Portishead, the Royal Portbury Docks and across the Bristol Channel to the Welsh Hills.

The walk wound through fields, along lanes, over a large number of rickety stiles and through woodland.

Towards the end of the walk we dropped down into Priors Wood. This is ancient woodland some of which originates from as early as 1600. It was for many years part of the Tyntesfield estate a large estate which was sold up when the previous Lord Wraxall died. The wood supplied the house's large boilers. The house and immediate grounds were bought by the National Trust. This particular area was bought by a Children's hospice and has been subsequently sold to the Avon Wildlife Trust.

The bluebells cover large areas of the woods and it was not long before we could smell their perfume drifting in the air.

There has been quite a lot of replanting where some of the trees are still small.

The walk did prove to be a bit of an obstacle course in places with several streams to be crossed.

And fallen trees to climb over.

It was also interesting to see how in some parts there were no bluebells growing at all possibly due to a heavier canopy of trees.

It was undoubtedly a beautiful walk which I would heartily recommend. The bluebell woods could make a lovely break on any journey on the M5 and if you happen to be there at bluebell time there is a house that opens it's garden for teas at weekends. We headed for the local pub The Priory instead where we had left our cars.