Rebirth of a native woodland

Windermere, Lake District The wood is coming back to life, aided by a man on a mission

Not everyone's idea of a retirement present, perhaps, but three years ago Hamish Ross bought himself a wood to the east of Windermere, roughly triangular and bordered by a dry-stone wall. "The first thing we did was fix the walls and put up a deer-proof fence," he said, leading me through the new gate. "They'd been getting in for decades - eaten everything. The under-storey had completely disappeared. Now, we get excited about brambles."

As we walked along, he pointed out the line of 10 conifers he'd kept for shelter - all that remained of an acre of neglected Sitka spruce and larch. With the dense tangle gone, light could once more filter onto the ancient woodland floor, helping the 900 indigenous saplings that Hamish has planted over the past couple of years. Reaching to a couple of metres high, they were woven through the centre of the wood amid mature trees and fallen giants. An assortment of buds - elegant orange beech tips, the red bulbs of lime, fat nut-coloured horse chestnut and downy crab apple - adorned their branches. This winter, he will be planting 350 more.