The most northerly oak woodland in the UK - the trees

OS map 1908 scale 6" to the mile 

Screen shot of Loch a' Mhuilinn woodland  taken from the National Library of Scotland http://maps.nls.uk/view/76409530   

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee on the description of the woodland as a Special Area of Conservation have this description :

This complex of woods represents old sessile oak woods at the extreme north of its range in Scotland. The site includes the extensive and diverse Ardvar Woodlands, which are mainly birch-dominated with oak throughout, and the woodland at Loch a’Mhuilinn, the other component of this complex, to the north, which has small areas dominated by oak. The area of woodland at Loch a’Mhuilinn lies on the north-west coast of Sutherland near sea level where the effects of exposure on the growth form of some of the oaks are particularly well-demonstrated. The oaks are of special interest because they are the most northern remnant of native oak woodland in the British Isles. Both sites are very important rich oceanic bryophyte sites with good examples of the macrolichen Lobarion community.

Loch a' Mhuilinn National Nature Reserve

In my limited experience, 6 visits intermittently over 8 years, the Loch a’ Mhuilinn woodland has proved a personally challenging photographic proposition due to its exposed location and seeming prevalent high wind. On the elevated areas in the woodland and/or on west and south westerly facing aspects of the site, tree growth indicates the prevailing wind direction and the stunting effects of wind, a coastal krummholz zone.

As soon as the slope aspect or topography provides some shelter from the wind, trees grow straighter and higher. The birch woodland in parts is particularly stunted in growth and you are bush wacking walking through the canopy at eye level.

With the exception of a couple of pollards, the majority of the older oak trees are derelict coppice and the coppice stools do suggest they are of some age. I've noted that the woodland also contains dominantly Downy Birch with scattered Hazel, Rowan, Willow and Holly trees. Deer fencing has been erected and aside from natural regeneration a management plan of replanting is currently underway to reinstate woodland.

I'm no fan of motion blur as an aesthetic for stills images of woodland and high winds are not the best for stopped down apertures and long exposures. Which means that every visit I have made to this wood, the wind has set the photography agenda.

Downy Birch

Loch a' Mhuilinn woodland is classed as Atlantic woodland or representative of the Celtic Rainforest, with unpolluted and moisture laden air, the Lichens provide the photography fall back and are covered in the next post.