Long Ashton

 22nd Aug 2015

This walk really links with the last one and returns to the Leigh Woods area,

allowing more time for exploring the old arboretum,

and finding some of the old specimen trees from the 18th & 19th century,

associated with the Leigh Court Estate.

It started by walking through the Ashton Court Estate,

which itself had magnificent and varied tree-planting,

took a different route through Leigh Woods,

and after extensive paths tried out in the Arboretum,

returned past the Abbots Pond of Abbots Leigh,

and a really nice route which crossed the golf course above Long Ashton.

The only unfortunate event was the thunder storm with torrential rain for the last half hour.

This is Miles Dock

The following pictures are within the arboetum and it is worth taking some time, as there are labels on a great many of the trees, identifying a wide and interesting range of species. Some trees date back to the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s

This is the Fulham Oak which has very interesting bark, and retains it's leaves in Winter

This is a Giant Redword, circa 1860 We also identified a Sweet Chestnut pollard circa 1650 a Weymouth Pine circa 1812 and small-leafed Limes circa 1750 We did visit the grotto, but what must have once been a magnificent view is now partially obscured by trees.

We are now out of the arboreum and these steps lead down to the Abbots Pond, after which  photographs stopped due to worsening weather