Three more fields of gold
POETIC FAME Ullswater, Cumbria
The wild daffodils at Glencoyne Park in the Lake District must be the most famous in the world, immortalised in William Wordsworth’s poem: ‘I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.’ He first saw them on a walk with his sister Dorothy in 1802 and more than two centuries later the flowers still bob by the water, admired by flocks of visitors. Check they’re real, though: one mild spring the daffs bloomed early and were supplemented with ones of silk and plastic to keep later flower-seekers happy.
WALK HERE: Find a free guide to a 12-mile springtime leg-stretcher by Glencoyne and up to Great Dodd at www.lfto.com/bonusroutes.
HOLY ORDERS Farndale, North Yorkshire
Sunk into the heathered uplands of the North York Moors, a seven-mile stretch of the River Dove through Farndale glows with daffodils each spring. The flowers daub the banks, fields and woods with yellow, and are thought to have been planted by monks from nearby Rievaulx Abbey. Monks are credited with large scale daff displays elsewhere too, until Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries in the late 1530s put an end to many religious orders. It gives an idea of the antiquity of this display though, which in 1955 was designated a nature reserve to protect these wild Lent lilies for the future and anyone seen to ‘injure’ the flowers will be fined, so watch where you step!
WALK HERE: Turn to Walk 27 in this issue for your six-mile walk up on the moors and down through daffodil-filled Farndale.
NATIONAL BLOOM Coed y Bwl, Glamorgan
The leek has long been the emblem of Wales, since St David instructed his soldiers to wear them on their hats in battle to identify themselves against the Saxon enemy in the 6th century. In Welsh, leek is cenhinen and daffodil is cenhinen Pedr, or Peter’s leek, and since Prime Minister David Lloyd George popularised it, the daffodil has been worn as a buttonhole on St David’s Day on March 1st. Two varieties are linked with Wales – the wild daffodil and the all deep yellow, Tenby daffodil – and you can see them both on a walk through the ancient ash woodlands of Coed y Bwl near Bridgend.
WALK HERE: Find out more at www.welshwildlife.org/naturereserve/coed-y-bwl-castle-upon-alun/