West Stormont Woodland Group

West Stormont
Woodland Group

Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) SC051682

Join us today to bring Taymount Wood and Five Mile Wood into community ownership

Monthly Community Update for May 2020

West Stormont was the name used in medieval times to cover the parishes of Auchtergaven, Kinclaven, Logiealmond, Moneydie, Redgorton (Stanley) and the Murthly portion of Little Dunkeld. West Stormont has been chosen as the most suitably inclusive title for the many communities connected to Taymount and Five Mile Woods today. Working with local people to bring Taymount Wood and Five Mile Wood into Community Ownership
West Stormont Woodland Group

What has WSWG been doing this month?

  • Covid 19 has inevitably slowed down progress with the WSWG project with many members of the steering group understandably diverted to other matters. We aim to pick up the pace in the coming weeks. So please bear with us. We have seen lots of people using the woods for dog walking, cycling and daily exercise, which is great. The weather has been ideal for this and we would love to hear feedback from members and others as to what they have seen and enjoyed along the way.
  • Margaret Lear, has written two more lovely blogs for WSWG over the past few weeks – “Bees, Butterflies and an Old Straight Track” about the north route into Five Mile Wood and “Creeping Up on King’s Myre” about the western approach to Taymount Wood from Bankfoot andAirntully. Members and others receive these directly by email but anyone can read them on the WSWG Facebook page and website. Why not follow in Margaret’s footsteps and cycle tracks and see for yourselves the same delights and treasures she has observed along these.

WSWG Word of the Month – May Blossom

May is the month when blossoms abound, but it is hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) which takes one of its names from the month in which it flowers …. and hawthorns are currently laden with blossom throughout the landscape. The old Scots name is hawberry, but as well as May tree, and in other parts of the UK it is known as the haw bush, the has tree, quickthorn, whitethorn and thornapple amongst others. Like much of our native flora, all parts of the hawthorn have been used by people down the ages for many different purposes. According to “The Scots Herbal – the Plant Lore of Scotland” by Tess Darwin, the blossoms as well as the berries were made into wine and liqueur. And a decoction of hawthorn leaves and flowers was drunk to soothe sore throats and to correct high or low blood pressure. The hawthorn, however, at one time was so sacred that using any part of the tree was considered a violation. This taboo still survives in the occasionally encountered belief that it is unlucky to bring hawthorn blossom into the house. There is room for lots more hawthorns in both Taymount and Five Mile Woods.

What’s coming up next?

What we are looking for is help from you all to keep the connections going between our woods and our community.

1. Help us imagine April in the woods. Stanley Development Trust is promoting local walking routes for peopleto use during the Covid19 crisis. If any of you are managing to walk, run, cycle or ride through Taymount or Five Mile Woods in the course of your daily exercise allowance, please let us all know what you see and hear. Tell us what flora and fauna you see, what sounds you hear, any ideas you have for the woods in future and even any problems you come across. If you can, do send us photos or video clips, even a selfie with a seasonal woodland scene behind, which we can post on the Facebook page and website.

2. Would anyone in our lovely WSWG community with the necessary skills and creative flair be willing to volunteer to improve our website for us? We have so much we would like to add to it about the project but need someone to manage and develop it. Please get in touch if you would be willing to give it a go.

  • Become a WSWG Member today
  • Join the FREE MEMBERSHIP SCHEME on our website www.weststormontwoodlandgroup.scot
    Follow us! West Stormont Woodland Group 
  • Email us: contact@weststormontwoodlandgroup.scot

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Previous Articles

Community Monthly Update – February 2025

This has been another month where behind-the-scenes admin has somewhat outpaced community stories or new milestones to lead on, so we will instead begin with a celebration of two natural highlights of the WSWG year so far. For most of us, the Aurora Borealis used to be a rare sight in Scotland, needing us to travel to the northern isles or northern Scandinavian for more reliable and impressive viewing. But recently, the Northern Lights have been much more active over the UK, both locally and even down to the south coast of England. Here are some shots taken of the skies above Taymount Wood around the turn of the year. Our second natural highlight is that Taymount and Five Mile Wood came through Storm Eowyn’s 90mph winds remarkably unscathed, both a joy and a relief to us all. Forestry and Land Scotland have carried out priority tree clearance to keep forestry tracks open. Thank you to those WSWG members who reported windblown trees across the core paths.

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Community Monthly Update – January 2025

It’s been a deliberately quiet month for WSWG over the Christmas period so instead of a summary of what we’ve done in the past few weeks, our focus this January is on wishing all our members, supporters and wider community a Happy New Year, and then musing, with the help of a few uplifting photos taken this week, on how beautiful our woods are when draped in winter sunlight, frost and mist and what a stroll in nature can do for our spirit and wellbeing at this time of year. So, if you can, make sure you enjoy this treat for real with your own walk in the woods, whatever time of year it happens to be.

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Community Monthly Update – December 2024

At this extraordinarily hectic time of year sometimes it’s rewarding to grab a cup of tea and take time to reflect on just how busy we’ve all been. Treat yourself to 5 minutes off and come down memory lane with WSWG for a photo montage of our Woodland Year. And it has been a busy twelve months for WSWG with lots of events bringing a wider range of people to the woods than in previous years, and even more going on behind the scenes in pursuit of our shared goals for our woods, wildlife and community. You can look back at all our Community Monthly Updates on our website to remind you of all the activities and connections we have enjoyed. We hope you have an amazing Festive Season and look forward to seeing you again in 2025. In the meantime, here are a few WSWG photos from a highly enjoyable 2024.

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Community Monthly Update – November 2024

Our top story this month has to be the fantastic Bush Craft and Woodland Picnic event we had on 2 November in Taymount Wood with Biscuit of Wee Adventures, working in the woodland environment on a “Leave No Trace” basis.

In the morning, nine pre-school to 6 year old children learned how to put up shelters of different shapes and sizes using colourful tarpaulins and strings and ropes.

In the afternoon, thirteen 7 to 12 year olds had their turn, learning about knots and tarpaulins, working out how to tension and guy with ropes and found stakes to angle and raise or lower the tarps. Tree stumps became seats and tables, moss, twigs and leaves became gardens, and so imaginations roamed all day. Frogs, beetles and millipedes were greeted with enthusiastic huddles before being helped out of harm’s way.

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Community Monthly Update – October 2024

Let’s start with a big thank you to PKC for the great job they have done resurfacing the U38 road from Five Mile Wood car park to Stanley past Active Kids. All done within the scheduled closure period and neatly tied in with a recessed tarmac apron at the car park. So much safer and more comfortable for everybody now the potholes and rough edges are no more.

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Community Monthly Update – September 2024

Latest on Stanley Wildwood (Rookery Wood). You may remember that we dedicated our July Monthly Update to making the case for community ownership of Stanley Wildwood, with subsequent mailouts and Facebook posts to encourage our members and supporters to vote in PKC’s recent public consultation for a community-based future for this small but important woodland in Stanley village. We are therefore delighted to tell you that the Council has reported that 65.6% of respondents in the Stanley postcode area were in favour of a community outcome for the woodland. Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the consultation. WSWG and Tayside Woodland Partnerships are now in discussion with PKC to explore further the option of bringing the woodland into community ownership and management. We will keep you posted including ways individuals and the wider community can get involved going forward.

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