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A ceilidh is a traditional Scottish social gathering.
Building on this theme, we have built the Ceilidh Circle in Roamers Wood for community use, teaching, and enjoyment. The
wooden benches provide circular seating around a performance area that hosts musical performances, social gatherings,
and outdoor learning activities with the local primary school and other youth groups.
The myriad uses for the Ceilidh Circle make it an excellent tribute to the memory of Robert Chalmers, a local musician who loved
the outdoors and bringing people together through music.
It is also a peaceful spot to sit and enjoy Roamers Wood with a
picnic, or to meet with friends. Please feel welcome to use this area of the woodland, taking care to leave it as you
find it - take any rubbish home and please respect the neighbours by keeping noise down.
From the Ceilidh Circle, you can access the outdoor Art Gallery and nearby Tree Alphabet.
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Orchard fruit is popular with both the resident creatures of Roamers Wood and the woodland’s visitors. Our two orchards contain many varieties of apple, pear, plum, damson and cherry. Help yourself to the fruit, which is ready to pick when it comes off the tree with a slight twist of the hand. Look for the metal identification tag on each tree.
You will find "Wonky-tree Orchard" below the Tree Alphabet area and "Robert’s Orchard" between The Loan and Catwalk entrances. You can download planting plans for the Wonky-tree Orchard and Robert’s Orchard.
Robert Chalmers was a local architect whose passions were music, woodlands and the universe!
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Our berry bushes, planted by community volunteers and school groups, are not in strictly-defined sections but if you look at the right time of year, you should find some of the fruits in the areas shown below. Each plant should have an identification label but if it has gone missing and you are not sure about the fruit, please leave it for the woodland’s creatures to enjoy.
1-honeyberry; 2-blackcurrant; 3-redcurrant; 4-whitecurrant; 5-blackberry; 6-gooseberry; 7-aronia; 8-saskatoon; 9-japanese wineberry; 10-blueberries
Honeyberries
The Honeyberry plant originates from Russia and is a member of the Honeysuckle family.
The dark blue, bell-shaped berry has very thin skin and a unique flavour, with varieties tasting similar to cherries,
grapes or blackberries.
The berries can be eaten fresh from the plants, or used for other culinary purposes such as in preserves, cakes or even
dried as healthy snacks.
Honeyberry plants can live up to 50 years due to their hardy nature.
Blueberries
You will find several varieties of delicious blueberries. Enjoy them straight off the plant.
Gooseberries
We have planted for three colours of berries: red, yellow and green. Generally used in preserves and desserts yet some
of our gooseberries can be eaten fresh from the bush!
Blackberries
You will find several varieties of blackberry, some of which have thornless stems. Happy picking!
Redcurrants, Whitecurrants, Blackcurrants
Strings of currants of three colours and varying sizes. Often used for jam-making, crumbles and pies.
Aronia berries
Aronia plants produce small purple-black berries. Whilst some varieties can be enjoyed raw, the fruit is often sharp but
when cooked, has a rich distinctive taste. Like blackcurrants the berries are very high in vitamin C and can be used in
much the same way including jam-making, crumbles and pies!
Japanese Wineberries
Originating in Japan but also native to Korea and China, the Japanese Wineberry produces bright orange berries which
turn crimson when fully ripe. They have an unusual aromatic sweet-yet-tart taste. Ideal for eating fresh from the bush
and also using in jams, jellies and desserts.
Saskatoon berries
Purple-blue berries which are sweet, juicy & firm. Can be eaten fresh or used for baking, if you get to them before the
birds!
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In collaboration with volunteers from Friends of the Pentlands, we have begun to grow wildflowers for pollinators in Roamers Wood. Pollinators, such as bees, butterflies, moths and even some species of beetles and flies, all play an essential role in ecosystems. They pollinate the flowers that provide fruits, berries, nuts, and seeds that humans and wildlife rely on.
Many species of pollinator are becoming scarce because their habitats are being disturbed by human activities and by climate change. By growing plants whose leaves feed caterpillars that turn into butterflies and moths, and whose flowers provide nectar for adults to drink, we hope that Roamers Wood will provide a life line to pollinators.
the Northern Brown Argus, photographed by Bob Douglas (Friends of the Pentlands)
To encourage the right wildflowers to grow, every year, the team strim, rake and take away the grass growing in the patches of Roamers Wood for pollinators. This is vital to uncover buried wildflower seeds and allow newly sowed seed, as well as plants that we raise, to grow. Removing the grass, each year is essential to reduce the fertility of the soil which helps give the wildflowers a foothold so they can grow. We also sow a plant called yellow rattle – which is particularly good at holding back grass – to help give the wildflowers space to grow. Some of the wild flowers will grow back on their own each year (they are called ‘perennials’) and others need to spread their seed to survive (they are called ‘annuals’).
The Pentland Hills and North Esk Valley are home to more than twenty species of butterfly, which includes six scarce species that we are particularly keen to support by growing these particular plants:
Birdsfoot Trefoil for the Common Blue butterflyWild Violet and dog Violet for the Dark Green Fritillary and the Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary butterfliesSheep and Common Sorrel for the Small Copper butterfly Cuckoo Flower and Garlic Mustard for the Orange Tip butterflyWild Rock Rose for the Northern Brown Argus butterfly
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Weeds are... what exactly?
in this foraging section we hope to introduce some perhaps surprising facts about common 'pest' plants that often
contain extraordinary medicinal, clothing and food properties. Although once well known,
many of their facts have been lost through modern habits of living...
Known for its sting, this 'poor man's spinach' is delicious when eaten correctly
yet it has another key feat, in making clothes... as example, in the First World War the German army used nettles when cotton was scarce, so its properties for resilience are tried and tested! To start such process, pull away the outer strands from its stem stalk tissue. then plait these into a cordage since these bast fibres that run up the stem are actually very strong
the resulting cordage can be spun into any kind of clothing
are nettles simply just stinging pests?... perhaps for you to answer!
a bee's knowledge of the benefits of this plant is second to none! yet are there benefits from a human perspective?
put simply, yes! detoxifying decoctions can be made from root and leaf to aid digestion and healthy liver. It is also used as food, and infused as oil and tinctures...
as example, the roots can be ground up and made into a juice help liver, gall bladder and heart, since they have anti-microbial and anti-viral properties (and may yet prove an asset in cancer treatment for which they are being tested presently)
and, just as the root of the dandelion is key to many cures, its countless names include tooth of the lion, taraxacum officinale, dant y llew, caisearbhan nan uan.. all of which point to its many hidden (and mostly forgotten) properties...
so, is it a weed? ...or is it perhaps a teacher!
plantain, plantago major, cuach phadraig... this plant with many names that grows everywhere surely cannot disguise its pest properties?
Did you know that the leaves are anti-bacterial and when scrumpled up and rubbed vigorously together produce an oil which will soothe bites, stings, scrapes, sores and such?
Luckily, since one plant can produce 20,000 seeds, whether you see it as pest or remedy, it is not presently endangered!
it looks innocent enough, yet ground elder, bishops weed, aegopodium and lus an easbaig, has many more names, such as cythraul y gerddi (devil of the gardens) with which term most gardeners would agree!
brought in by the Romans or early monks, this plant is unassuming yet everywhere. Another Welsh name for it is onnen y ddaear (ground ash) which hints at its well trodden path
with its vigorous root system it can move fast through any form of soil or mineral surface... yet, belive it or not, this plant is very helpful as a herbal, being good for sciatica and rheumatism and gout (bishops weed owes its name to its early religious use for this latter problem)
and, of more common relevance, ground elder is delicious in salads
so, whether a pest, a medicine or a food, perhaps this plant is of interest?
ground ivy, creeping charlie, glechoma hederacea, alehoof and many another name it has! a chief characteristic of ground ivy is how it spreads over, through, under almost anything, as if to find somewhere comfortable to sit...
the leaves of ground ivy are small and circular and...
(text to come on chickweed)
cleaver, sticky willy, goosegrass and with many other names and meanings to describe this plant that seems innocent enough yet, because of the hairs along stem and leaf, we avidly void!
these hairs that grasp onto any passer-by, disguise a delicious spring leaf that is edible, raw, in salads and an old use for stuffing mattress and pillows. another feature of its hairy stems make it useful as a sieve for clearing pond weed, and its seeds make a coffee of sorts.
(text to come)
(text to come)
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and see more about the woodlore of bramble
Birch needs a lot of light and reflects its small, triangular leaves that easily bend to the wind can be used for antiseptic and diuretic needs. Tea can be made from young birch leaves, and birch sap stimulates kidney metabolism to clean blood.
and see more about the woodlore of birch
although the berries contain parasorbic acid (which can harm the kidneys if lots are eaten raw, yet freezing or heating will break this compound down into harmless sorbic acid) and make the berries delicious! They also contain sugar, carotin, pectin, essential oil, vitamin A and more vitamin C than oranges and lemons. The dried berries and leaves strengthen the immune system, cleanse the blood, help diarrhoea and the kidneys, and prevent coughs.
see more on the properties of rowan in woodlore
it hardly needs saying that the hazel nut is key to the whole history of foraging since it contains calcium, proteins and potassium
and see more about the woodlore of hazel
(text to come ...)
where much of the magic happens (and more to come)..
(and yet to come)..
whilst its berries can be eaten fresh from the tree, the seeds within are not great and should be spat out! for culinary and medicinal use however, the berries are very important....
used to treat skin conditions such as aczema and acne, it does contain anti-inflammatory and antiseptic chemicals and also used as food for livestock and as a dye for clothes
There are many useful resources on this subject such as this inspiring TED talk by Tama Matsuoka Wong How I did less and ate better, thanks to weeds and The Magic of Elderflower Medicine by the 'Herbal Jedi'
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