OPINION (AN COLÚN): Ireland's ancient forests are remembered in stunning new book

IT IS POIGNANT to reflect on the many great forests which have been lost in Ireland over the millennia.
Unbroken canopies stretching for countless miles, towering trees, abundant wildlife, abundant flora; places of great beauty and peace. Now no more; replaced by landscapes that often pale in comparison.
I like to use my imagination and imagine what it was like in those special forests. I've been reading a book this week which tells me that sometimes my imagination is quite wrong!
The book is called “Forgotten Forests” and it's been beautifully written by Jonathan Mullard.
Mullard's book tells us that there are still remnants of some of these forests. Ancient trees, some over a thousand years old, are dotted around the Atlantic Isles, the last survivors of a lost world. By presenting scientific studies of these trees and of fossilised forests; and by examining our oldest wooden artifacts, Mullard helps the reader to understand the many woodlands that have disappeared from our landscapes.
The lands that now make up Britain and Ireland were some of the last settled by humans and were locked in ice for more than twenty thousand years. The earliest people, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers like Cheddar Man, arrived around eleven thousand years ago to find dense forests. While they lived lightly, they did introduce fire, which they used to create clearings, and this was the beginning of the reshaping of the forests.
Some six thousand years ago Neolithic farmers migrated to the Atlantic Isles from Europe, which meant a violent end to the hunter-gatherers' way of life. The Neolithic farmers also dramatically changed the ecosystems. “Forests were cleared for fields,” writes Mullard, “trees and plants fed to livestock and predators hunted. A wild, forested world became one of agriculture and villages.” One of the places they settled was Newgrange where they flourished around 3200BC. We can see through their understanding of astronomy and their ceremonial practices that these inhabitants of the Boyne Valley were a sophisticated people.
“As humans learned to work bronze,” Mullard points out, “then iron, they also used wood in myriad ways, building homes, then cathedrals, hand tools then furniture and early machines, boats and eventually immense ships. The forests of Britain and Ireland fuelled the burgeoning human civilisation, from the Romans, Anglo Saxons, Vikings and Normans, to the British, Scottish, Welsh and Irish peoples through to the present day. In that time our woodlands have changed beyond recognition, but clues to their story remain.”
Mullard is a Biologist and Britain's first senior officer for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and he's written a tour de force, a work which has been many years in the brewing, piecing together historical records going as far back as the written word and archaeological evidence going back much further. The result is a wealth of arcane anecdotes and the latest scientific understanding of our natural history, as well as a fascinating journey through the forests, landscapes and human history of Ireland and Britain. For example, he writes about submerged forests which are ancient forests lying underneath the sea's surface. There's one such submerged forest in Carlingford Lough, which is a glacial fjord. Composed of pine and oak the Carlingford forest was submerged due to rising sea levels thousands of years ago. Other submerged forests can be found in Dingle Bay, Kenmare River and Galway Bay. Some of these forests along our coastlines are anything from 4,500 to 6,000 years old. Sometimes they become visible at low tide. For example, at low tide many tree remains become visible at Bunaneer, near Castlecove village on the south coast of the Iveragh Peninsula in Kerry.
One of the forests which the book discusses is the Forest of Aughty, which once stretched from Derrybrien near Gort, Galway, across to Tulla and down to Tuamgraney in Clare. The Brian Boru Oak is a remnant of this great forest. I visited it two years ago and it was hard to find because there are no directional signs. This magnificent tree is located in Raheen woods near Tuamgraney in east Clare; and according to legend it was planted by Brian Boru. The tree's girth is 26 feet. Parking beside Raheen woods I asked a few locals if they knew which way it was to the oak. They said they had never heard of it. Armed with an ordnance survey map and a Google Earth map with a red pin showing the location of the tree, I set off. 15 minutes later I emerged from the woodland and farmland opened up on my right. The tree stood on the border between the farmland and the woodland. There was no mistaking it. It was a magnificent specimen and, in terms of visual impact, stood out from all the other trees in the vicinity. Raheen is mixed woodland and its trees are very attractive but this oak was, visually speaking, on a different level. It was majestic. The Brian Boru Oak should be regarded and treated as a national treasure. Sadly, it doesn't even have signposting and it's on private land.

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