Let's be honest! From time to time, even the most diehard countryside folk like to venture out of the comfort of their wellies into the unfamiliar stiffness of black leather shoes or high heels.
Although I have to admit: if I had a choice, I'd much rather spend my 'rest' days cycling along England's southern coastline or knee-deep in a stream - being at one with nature. Sometimes, however, a city is calling, expertly enticing us with its delightful cultural and culinary offerings.
And so, +Shawn Moore and I finally succumbed to the old-world charm of Bristol and took a trip to the West Country last week. Before I go any further, let me just say: "There is a lot more to Bristol than meets the eye." It's perhaps my profession than compels me to seek out green spaces and flowing waters wherever I go - thus, a visit to the Avon Gorge and Leigh Woods was an obligatory addition to our two-day itinerary.
Bristol delights on so many levels - not only historically and culturally, but also geologically, ecologically, floristically and ornithologically! Here are some of the highlights from our weekend in 'one of Europe’s greenest capitals' (Bristol won the European Green Capital Award for 2015 earlier this month):
| The Clifton Suspension Bridge |
| The bridge and River Avon at low tide |
2. The River Avon, whose original route through Ashton Vale is thought to have been blocked during the last glacial period, gradually cut through the limestone ridge to form the Avon Gorge. The fossil shells and corals indicate that the limestone formed in shallow tropical seas in the Carboniferous period (359 - 299 million years ago).
The gorge has served as an important transport route to and from Bristol Harbour since the Middle Ages. The Bristol Channel and Avon Estuary, however, have the second highest tidal range in the world (49ft or 15 m), second only to the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada. Thus it's easy to see how the rapid ebb and flow of the tide, coupled with the narrow meandering course of the River Avon (map below) through the gorge, made navigation notoriously difficult.
| The course of the Avon through Bristol |
| Muds are carried here from the river's upstream sections |
3. Due to its unique geology and ecology, Avon Gorge and part of the surrounding Leigh Woods (155.4 ha in total) were in 1952 notified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The gorge has its own microclimate (i.e. is around a degree warmer than the surrounding land) and has been a famous botanical locality since William Turner, the Tudor naturalist and physician, discovered honewort here in 1562.
The steep walls of the gorge support an exceptional number of nationally rare and scarce plant species, including Round-headed Leek (Allium sphaerocephalon), Bristol Rock-cress (Arabis stricta), which is unique to the site, Western Spiked Speedwell (Veronica spicata ssp hybrida) and Honewort (Trinia glauca).
| An example of the unique floristic assemblages of the gorge |
Peregrine falcons, once again a (fairly) common sight in the gorge, have bred here successfully since 1990 - returning from the edge of extinction after a pesticide ban was passed in the 1960s. The RSPB's 'Birds of Prey in the UK' report explains this and other bird-of-prey conservation success stories in detail.
| One of the peregrine chicks that fledged in 2012 (Source: Bristol Ornithological Club, 2012) |
4. The Bristol Museum and Art Gallery's second floor exhibition is devoted to the Bristol School of Artists, centred around the English landscape painter Francis Danby (1793-1861) who resided in Bristol in the early 19th century. Some of Danby's landscapes became "masterpieces of Romanticism, recording man's delight in nature and his unusually harmonious relationship with it" (Greenacre, 2013).
| William West, The Avon Gorge from the Summit of the Observatory, Clifton; Oil on canvas (c.1834) |
| Francis Danby, View of the Avon Gorge; Oil on mahogany panel (1822) |
| And the view today... looking north from the bridge (Leigh Woods on the left and the A4 road on the right) |
