Seen Through A Holey-Stone

on being pixie-led in a fairy wood

Rowan berries dripping onto an oaken bed, Staverton Thicks, Suffolk, 31 August 2024.

The road through Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk leads through pine plantations on either side, planted in neat rows. Exactly the sort of woodland I remember vividly from my childhood as we drove through the miles of Breckland forest on the way to visit my grandparents in the Huntingdonshire fens. As soon as I spotted the first road sign signalling the presence of deer I would always peer excitedly as far into the dense rows of trunks as my eyes could reach, wondering whether every flickering shadow or strangely shaped stump might be one of these mystical creatures I had never seen for myself in the wild. As the sign always depicted a stag, I somehow assumed it was a stag that I would see so there was always the question of whether that half-hidden crown of twigs was actually a pair of antlers.

The appearance of Rendlesham forest may be comfortingly familiar, but nestled within it is a pocket of broad-leaf trees that is anything but. Off the B1084, along the broad straight road that runs through the forest, is a little patch of woods quite unlike any other. Blink and you’d miss it, but if you keep your eyes peeled then you’ll catch a glimpse of a lost world. In view for hardly a moment, the rows of softwood trees suddenly give way to the ancient woodland known as the Staverton Thicks. Even the most fleeting glimpse resembles nothing more than a vision of Fairyland seen through a holey-stone.