APRIL 2024 · GROUNDED
Puzzle Wood - Forest of Dean
Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire
Puzzlewood is a former iron-ore working in the Forest of Dean, active from the Roman period. The ore was extracted through scowles — irregular trenches and pits carved into the limestone — and when the extraction stopped, the forest moved in. Over a few centuries the moss moved in over that. What's left is a ravine system where the industrial cuts are now biological surfaces, every stone and carved channel covered in deep green growth.
The paths wind through the scowles rather than over them. Wooden railings — gnarled, weather-darkened — run along the edges of drops that are not dramatic enough to be dangerous but uneven enough to disorient. Stone stairways climb between walls of moss-covered rock. A rusted metal shed at one entrance has been absorbed into the canopy above it, the corrugated roof furred with growth. The iron ore channels, where they're narrow enough, are just gaps between walls with the sky a thin strip at the top.
You follow the railings, which is what the railings are for.
Puzzlewood — April 2024
In April the ferns are unfurling. The floor between the stone structures is mostly plant matter and moss, the soil barely visible. Twisted trees grow at the angles the terrain forced on them. A single frame of stone wall surface shows the density of moss at close range — not a covering but a substrate, several centimetres thick.
The railings and walkways have been there long enough to join the organic surfaces. The wood is grey and soft at the edges and the colour is close to the bark of the trees around them. None of it looks installed. It looks like it grew.
The maze that the name refers to is real: the path loops and doubles back and the contours of the old workings make landmarks unreliable. You follow the railings, which is what the railings are for.
Rusted metal shed entrance overgrown with moss beneath dense woodland canopy
Gnarled wooden railings lead down moss-covered forest path
Ancient forest floor covered in thick moss with towering trees
Narrow moss-covered trail winds between towering tree trunks
Forest pathway with wooden railings descends through lush woodland
Moss-laden boulders and logs create natural maze amid forest trees
Sunlit clearing reveals deeply moss-covered stone structures
Narrow stone channel carved between moss-covered cliff walls
Wooden steps climb steep moss-blanketed forest embankment
Stone stairway rises through moss-covered woodland passage
Twisted tree branch frames moss-covered stone path below
Decaying wooden structure nestled into dense moss-covered forest
Wooden walkway crosses moss-draped forest floor
Fern fronds spring from moss-blanketed forest floor
Twisted logs create natural barriers across moss-covered trail
Wooden pathway curves through densely forested moss maze
Stone stairway disappears into shadowed moss-covered woodland depths
Wooden boardwalk winds through fern-filled forest glen
Moss-covered boulders and ancient trees create labyrinthine forest passage
Tangled wooden railings guide path through dense woodland
Stone wall surfaces thick with moss create fortress-like forest chamber
Fern fronds unfurl across moisture-rich woodland understory
Curved wooden railings guide passage through densely forested ravine
Fern leaves fan across moss-draped forest floor
Ancient moss-covered stones form natural cave-like forest enclosure
Wooden railings descend through shadowed moss-blanketed woodland
Unfurling fern fronds emerge from thick forest floor moss
Twisted branch spans across moss-covered stone path
Wooden pathway leads deeper into shadow-filled moss maze
Winding wooden walkway cuts through dense ancient forest