Across the invisible threshold

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/07/across-invisible-threshold

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The ground steepens into a glacier-gouged corrie, and walking into it feels like crossing an invisible threshold. A slope falls away below us, steep and unnervingly slick with rain, above which hundreds of small white butterflies flicker in a low cloud, charging the air with the same soft suspense that comes with falling snow. After this muted summer, it comes as a surprise to find so many butterflies here, gathering secretly in the upper reaches of the Carrifran valley.

We wade gingerly downwards into a corrie coated with life; a montane of blaeberry and bog myrtle, harebell and hogweed, tormentil, asphodel, wild grasses and huge marshmallows of moss, all growing in amounts that feel strangely luxuriant for the altitude.

Then I stumble over bonsai-sized birches, carving a foothold in the world at more than 2,000 feet. They grow steadily taller as we descend, along with hawthorn, rowan and alder, until we are enveloped by trees and up to our waists in grasses and flowers.

It feels like this place is held in a spell. In most of the uplands a whole layer of life has been felled, farmed, burned or grazed away, but here in Carrifran some of it has been brought back, thanks to Carrifran Wildwood, a remarkable project started by a small group of friends to bring back the lost ancient forest that once carpeted the region. A picture from 1997, before the restoration began, shows a single rowan clinging to life above the Carrifran Burn; now it has been joined by half a million other trees.

As we wander downwards, the air hums with insects and the banks of the Carrifran burn are flushed with unkempt beauty. I see countless rowan, red fruits heralding autumn, the year ageing gracefully as ever.

There is a real sense here of what the glens, cwms and valleys of the British Isles would be like if they were let off the leash. As I cross another invisible threshold on this day, turning 30, I am grateful to everyone involved for this glimpse of a world I have missed for most of my life without knowing it.

• Forty Years on the Welsh Bird Islands, the 2015 memorial lecture in honour of the late Country diarist William Condry, will be given in Machynlleth on 3 October by Professor Tim Birkhead.