Autumn Colours

Mr D.E. Turner said:

,Which are the best places in NW England or North
Wales to go to in order to see trees displaying Autumn
colours ? I particularly like a variety of red, golden
and silver colours. Last year I went to Westonbirt
Arboretum near Bristol and it was magnificent.

The forest a couple of miles south of Betws-y-coed usually looks pretty
good, on the slope that rises to the south of Fairy Glen.

What you need to look for is natural woodland rather than forestry. In
the case above it's mixed woodland, coniferous and non-coniferous.
Check the symbols on the OS maps, coniferous symbols usually denote
boring spruce (although some is larch which loses its leaves). The
non-coniferous woodland is usually the best, although mixed can provide
good contrasts.

If you want lots of colour you'll need sunshine, so try to find a south
facing slope for the best sunshine. If you're inside the forest it's
actually easier to get good photos in soft overcast light, because of
the lower contrast.

The Nantgwynant valley SE of Snowdon has plenty of non-coniferous
woodland, as does the Glaslyn valley and the Nantmor valley (all around
Moel y Dyniewyd). Around Porthmadog and Portmeirion too.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk
http://www.wildwales.fsnet.co.uk

Following up to Mr D.E. Turner

Quoted message said:

,Which are the best places in NW England or North
Wales to go to in order to see trees displaying Autumn
colours ?

Eskdale isnt bad if in the ELD but ideally you want some maples
or cherries.
--
Mike Reid
Wasdale-Lake district-Thames path-London "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

On 18/10/04 2:17 pm, in article [email hidden], "Paul

Saunders said:

The forest a couple of miles south of Betws-y-coed usually looks pretty
good, on the slope that rises to the south of Fairy Glen.

Around Betwys was going to be my suggestion. The woodland behind Llanberis -
on the way to the waterfall should also be good. IN the midlands the Wyre
Forest can be superb.

--
Andy Howell
Birmingham, UK

my wife did the torrent walk (brithdir) on sunday and she said the colours
were great
well worth a look
"Mr D.E. Turner" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

,Which are the best places in NW England or North
Wales to go to in order to see trees displaying Autumn
colours ? I particularly like a variety of red, golden
and silver colours. Last year I went to Westonbirt
Arboretum near Bristol and it was magnificent.

Dave Turner

The Reids <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Eskdale isnt bad if in the ELD but ideally you want some maples
or cherries.

Nah! Don't bother with the Lakes in late autumn, It's terrible. Really dull
- nothing at all worth seeing. No golden trees or anything pretty. And the
bracken looks awful in the sun when it turns red. Next week especially is a
bad time to go.

I'd expand on that but I've some packing to do.

:-;

Stuart

Mr D.E. Turner said:

,Which are the best places in NW England or North
Wales to go to in order to see trees displaying Autumn
colours ? I particularly like a variety of red, golden
and silver colours. Last year I went to Westonbirt
Arboretum near Bristol and it was magnificent.

Dave Turner

I usually get nice colours when I go up for the Remembrance Sunday service
on Great Gable. Most of the valleys are good looking at that time, although
judging by the leaffall a week earlier is probably better. You may also
want to consider Chatsworth house in Derbyshire, that tens to have some
interesting trees and colours as well.

Mr D.E. Turner <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

,Which are the best places in NW England or North
Wales to go to in order to see trees displaying Autumn
colours ? I particularly like a variety of red, golden
and silver colours. Last year I went to Westonbirt
Arboretum near Bristol and it was magnificent.

Dave Turner

We did a walk from Black Rock picnic area near Matlock.

Straight onto the High Peak Trail and East down Sheep Pasture Incline,
with a canopy of golden leaves overhead and a carpet below, then along
the Cromford canal is similar as far as Whatstandwell.
We once saw a wallaby splashing across this canal!

Then we returned Westwards via Long Wood and Wirksworth to Black Rock.
As a bonus there is a bit of industrial history on the incline and a
workshop at the bottom, and a narrow gauge railway a short distance west
of Black Rock.
--
Gordon

"Mr D.E. Turner" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

,Which are the best places in NW England or North
Wales to go to in order to see trees displaying Autumn
colours ? I particularly like a variety of red, golden
and silver colours. Last year I went to Westonbirt
Arboretum near Bristol and it was magnificent.

The Forestry Commission website might be of use.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/autumn

This weekend I'll be off back to the Forest of Dean to check out the autumn
colours. Well actually it's probably still a bit early down here for the
best of the beech trees but this is also reckoned to be peak deer rut
weekend and the clash of antlers is a spectacle worth watching. It's also
the time of year for fungi. We went for a walk in the local woods over the
road at the weekend and found loads of quite large ones in rings up to 10
metres across.

"Chris Street" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
| On 18 Oct 2004 13:01:53 GMT, Mr D.E. Turner wrote:
|
| > ,Which are the best places in NW England or North
| > Wales to go to in order to see trees displaying Autumn
| > colours ? I particularly like a variety of red, golden
| > and silver colours. Last year I went to Westonbirt
| > Arboretum near Bristol and it was magnificent.
| >
| > Dave Turner
|
| I usually get nice colours when I go up for the Remembrance Sunday service
| on Great Gable. Most of the valleys are good looking at that time,
although
| judging by the leaffall a week earlier is probably better. You may also
| want to consider Chatsworth house in Derbyshire, that tens to have some
| interesting trees and colours as well.

I was at Chatsworth House exactly 1 year ago today, and it was lovely. I've
got a folder of lovely photos, with golden leaves on trees and on the floor
etc. Hightly recommended!

Ste

Following up to Stuart Mann

Quoted message said:

I'd expand on that but I've some packing to do.

have a good trip!
--
Mike Reid
Wasdale-Lake district-Thames path-London "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

I noticed that Message-ID: <[email hidden]>
from ste© contained the following:

Quoted message said:

I was at Chatsworth House exactly 1 year ago today, and it was lovely. I've
got a folder of lovely photos, with golden leaves on trees and on the floor
etc. Hightly recommended!

The pic of my dog has Chatsworth in the background.

--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

"Geoff Berrow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
| I noticed that Message-ID: <[email hidden]>
| from ste© contained the following:
|
| >
| >I was at Chatsworth House exactly 1 year ago today, and it was lovely.
I've
| >got a folder of lovely photos, with golden leaves on trees and on the
floor
| >etc. Hightly recommended!
|
| The pic of my dog has Chatsworth in the background.

As dedicated a photographer as me then? :-) Speaking of animals, I've also
got some lovely shots of the pink pigs at the farm!

Ste

"Gordon" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Mr D.E. Turner <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

,Which are the best places in NW England or North
Wales to go to in order to see trees displaying Autumn
colours ? I particularly like a variety of red, golden
and silver colours. Last year I went to Westonbirt
Arboretum near Bristol and it was magnificent.

Dave Turner

We did a walk from Black Rock picnic area near Matlock.

Straight onto the High Peak Trail and East down Sheep Pasture Incline,
with a canopy of golden leaves overhead and a carpet below, then along
the Cromford canal is similar as far as Whatstandwell.
We once saw a wallaby splashing across this canal!

Then we returned Westwards via Long Wood and Wirksworth to Black Rock.
As a bonus there is a bit of industrial history on the incline and a
workshop at the bottom, and a narrow gauge railway a short distance west
of Black Rock.
--
Gordon

Another good Peak District walk would be from Hartington down through
Beresford and Wolfscote dales and then up Biggin dale and back along the
green lanes to the start point. All the dales are wooded, at least in part.

Borrowdale in the Lake District is superb once the beech trees turn, but
it's probably a bit early for that at the moment. I'm up there in the second
half of next week so hopefully it will be colourful by then..

Neil.
Peak District walks - www.pwakwalking.co.uk

ste© wrote

Quoted message said:

I was at Chatsworth House exactly 1 year ago today, and it was lovely. I've
got a folder of lovely photos, with golden leaves on trees and on the floor
etc. Hightly recommended!

We had a particularly long and dry autumn in the Peaks last year, which
created some fantastic foliage. I've never seen quite so many reds. It's
not quite as good this year but we've still yet to have our first hard
frost so there's a lot of colour about. The woods on Baslow Edge, just
above the village are particularly wonderful at the moment and really
catch the evening sun beautifully. I pass them twice a day but just never
seem to remember to put the camera in the car ! Lots of good fungi this year, too.

Chris

Chris Gilbert said:

We had a particularly long and dry autumn in the Peaks last year,

Yes it was dry last Autumn, hardly rained at all during my October
Project.

Quoted message said:

which created some fantastic foliage.

I don't think it was the dryness that was the cause. I remember seeing
something on countryfile explaining why the colours were so good last
year. Can't remember exactly what it was, something to do with the
summer weather I think. Anyone know for sure?

Quoted message said:

not quite as good this year

Hey, give it a chance! Autumn typically reaches it's colour peak during
the last week of October, we're not quite there yet. Last year Autumn
was late (down here in South Wales anyway), it didn't really get going
until the first and second weeks of November, so it's actually
developing sooner this year (which is normal).

Quoted message said:

but we've still yet to have our first hard
frost so there's a lot of colour about.

How does frost affect the colour?

What usually kills the autumn colours is the arrival of the gales, which
blows all the leaves off the trees. For river/waterfall photography
this can look very nice with all the rocks in the river covered with
fallen leaves. What kills that is the first decent downpour which
washes them all away.

Next couple of weeks are an ideal time for waterfall photography (in
wooded areas).

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk
http://www.wildwales.fsnet.co.uk

Paul Saunders said:

Quoted message said:

which created some fantastic foliage.

I don't think it was the dryness that was the cause. I remember seeing
something on countryfile explaining why the colours were so good last
year. Can't remember exactly what it was, something to do with the
summer weather I think. Anyone know for sure?

You need a good warm summer with adequate rain to give lots of healthy leaf
growth. But then autumn needs to be bright too. I can distinctly recall
one autumn hereabouts where the sun never appeared - the trees remained in
leaf right into November, barely changed colour, and then the whole lot
dropped into a slimy green mess. This year is not as good as last year, and
we have had a lot of dull, rainy days since early September.

--
We have standards and expect you not to exceed them.

Mail john rather than nospam...

Paul Saunders wrote

Quoted message said:

How does frost affect the colour?

It falls off ;-)

Chris

"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

I don't think it was the dryness that was the cause. I remember seeing
something on countryfile explaining why the colours were so good last
year. Can't remember exactly what it was, something to do with the
summer weather I think. Anyone know for sure?

<snip>

Quoted message said:

How does frost affect the colour?

Most of the blokes that used to lean on gates in our village and shout
bollocks up and down the road reckoned you needed a couple of frosts to
bring the colours out. The scientific view on the following website and
others says that the yellow colours are pretty much the same year on year
and the red colours are best after warm sunny autumn days with cool but not
freezing nights.

I think the dry summer around here killed off quite a few leaves a while
ago. Some just browned shrivelled and dropped but some came out in decent
colours back at the end of August.

"AndyP" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

The scientific view on the following website

That'll be this website.

http://www.accuweather.com/iwxpage/paws/fallfaq.htm