thread: in 1654 the Irish Civil Survey described the woods of Dungannon as 'very much destroyed & Wasted... There are yet some usefull Woods for Countrie buildings, as the Braintree, Clanaghery, Monterneavlin & Arratir'.
at this time, the 'Braintree' woods spanned >500acres (pic)

by 1830 the biggest remaining chunk was Brantry (Braintree) Wood, which clocked in at about 100acres. this was probably an oakwood

sometime in the 20th century Brantry Wood was acquired by state foresters. at this time, the routine treatment for ancient woodland that found its way into state ownership was to destroy the original semi-natural woodland and replace it with a crop of commercial conifers (pic)

but by the 21st century the attitudes of those in power had changed. ancient woodland was no longer something to be 'improved'- it was an irreplaceable part of our natural and cultural heritage. from ~2010 onwards, the last conifer crops were harvested and restoration began

taking away the darkness of the conifer canopy has enabled an incredible resurgence of life. within a few years, 10000s of young birch, rowan, willow, hazel, holly, ash, oak and elm have sprung up by themselves (not planted). i've highlighted a conifer stump in pic for reference

this has also given some of the surviving oaks the space they need to thrive- the leafing close to the trunk is 'epicormic growth', a response to increased light

the woodland wildflowers are spreading back out too, ft. bluebells, yellow pimpernel, woodruff and wood anemone. the ingredients for a spectacularly rich future woodland are all there

some of the richest surviving vegetation is along the woodland edge, which is enclosed by wood banks- ancient structures designed to keep grazing animals out (bank and ditch, with ditch on the outside). if you find a wood with these, its very likely ancient

its great to see the mistakes of the past being corrected as best we can at sites like Brantry. thank you @ForestServiceNI for your work here. now we just need to scale it up to the rest of NI's damaged ancient woods @edwinpootsmla