Bluebells: The folklore helping protect the wildflower
Bluebells, in case you didn't know, are protected by law. You shouldn't pick them, damage them or transplant the bulbs.If that wasn't enough to put you off perhaps the idea of being visited by a bad fairy might do the trick.Bronagh Gallagher, from the Woodland Trust , is a Community Development Officer at Mourne Park in Kilkeel, which has the aptly named 'Bluebell trail' for people to visit.She has a couple of cautionary tales from folklore. One says: "If you hear the bluebell ring you might be visited by a bad fairy and things don't go too well for you after that."Or if you "pick a bluebell - the fairies being mischievous may come along and lead you astray and you may end up wandering around that woodland for a very long time, very, very lost."
Bluebells are a very "delicate flower" that tend to bloom between the middle of April and the middle of May in Northern Ireland.Ms Gallagher says the native bluebell "are found in places of great significance" and are "an indicator of an ancient woodland" which is why they are often associated with being "magical"."It's funny that the cultural stories and the folklore around it are all based around the protection of them as well." She believes it shows that "we've always loved bluebells and understood the need to protect them".
At Mourne Park in Kilkeel they've been removing the non-native invasive species like rhododendron and laurel to make room for the bluebells.Ellie Green is Site Manager for Woodland Trust which owns the park. She says plants like those "block out any sunlight getting to the woodland floor and they out compete any of the native species that you'd get like bluebells".There are more than 100 acres of woodland there, 73 of them ancient. "So far we've made our way through 60 hectares of woodland, restoring it."She says seeing the bluebells "come back after we've done the removal work shows that the work we are doing is worth it and it's worthwhile".
The main danger to the future of the bluebells now is humans."As soon as you step on them and break them then you can ruin quite big swathes of bluebells."Ms Green says they understand that people want to take pictures with them "but we ask that people keep their dogs on leads and keep themselves to the paths as well."She says it's vital that these "seeds can go all the way from going into flower to then going into seed to then going through their life cycles".There's still a small window left for people to see bluebells this year before they reappear next spring.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Isle of Man TT: Fans not deterred as weather delays racing
Isle of Man TT fans have not been put off the world famous motorcycling festival, despite action on the course facing several delays. It comes after the start of racing at the 2025 event was pushed back by two days to roads on part of the 37.7-mile (61km) course have also been to blame for Tuesday's Supertwin and Superstock races being moved to the Donaghy from near Ballymoney in Northern Ireland has been coming since 2015 and said he has seen worse weather. Mr Donaghy said when he came in 2019 the bad weather meant he saw "just two laps of a race"."The weather is OK, it is what it is... you don't know until you come here," he the delays, he said he been able to watch "good racing" on Monday and had already booked his ticket for next Wellbrock from northern Germany travelled to the island for the races for the third time this said the weather was "not so fun" but was hopeful it would improve as she loved watching the event. "You can't see anything like it in Germany," she said. Having grown up in Port Erin 40 years ago, Mark Jones returns to the island each year for the living in Goostrey in Cheshire, he said the island was "still in my heart" and he enjoyed coming home for the said while weather delays were "a little frustrating", people understood that things "shift and change" in road he said hold-ups in racing offered "a chance to have a look round the rest of the island" and he had even "hopped on a steam train down to Port Erin". Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
The rugged region that's home to Italy's wild side
Day one of our wildlife and walking adventure in Abruzzo, and already we'd seen a bear. Or that's what our group of amateur wildlife-spotters hoped we'd seen: a large, dark-brown creature with a humpy back shuffling along a ridge some distance across the valley. Passing the binoculars around, our guide Filippo let us down gently. 'It is very like a bear,' he said – from a distance – but it was a wild boar. 'The bear is much faster. It does not stop. It moves very quickly through the landscape until it finds food.' The Marsican brown bear is the icon of Italy's National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise. Everywhere there are murals and peep boards to poke your head through, depicting cuddlier versions of this elusive, endangered creature. There are bear-themed road signs, too, warning you to watch your speed. In 2023, a beloved three-year-old bear nicknamed Juan Carrito, who became famous for a bakery break-in at a ski resort, was hit by a car and killed in a village just outside of the park – a tragedy not only for Carrito and his fans, but for the species itself. It's estimated there are only 50-60 Marsican brown bears left in the world, all of them living within or just beyond the Abruzzo National Park. The wild heart of Italy The chance to spot a bear was not the only thing that drew me to what local conservation group Rewilding Apennines calls the 'wild heart' of Italy, at once remote but only a couple of hours' drive east from the mayhem of Rome. There are hiking trails through spectacular mountain scenery – in May amidst a profusion of spring flowers including wild pansies, iris and orchids, or if you go in September, through mushroom-scented woods rivalling New England for autumn colour. This region also harbours wolves, and has done for more than 400,000 years. After the Second World War, they were almost driven to extinction, but since the 1970s, the Apennine wolf has been strictly protected, and there are now at least eight packs within the Abruzzo park. Wolves I did get to see. On our second day, we rose at 5am for a dawn wildlife-watching session at an abandoned village with panoramic views across a steep wooded valley. Before we even got there, we spied two of these charismatic creatures, just metres away from our vehicle, trotting purposefully parallel to the road on the low, scrubby hillside. They stared directly at us, then picked up their pace, loping further up the hill, camouflaged against the rocks and bushes. It was rare to see wolves so close to the town, Filippo told us. The town was Pescasseroli, where we stayed at a comfortable, art nouveau-style hotel for four nights of our trip. In springtime, Pescasseroli is sleepy and sedate, waking up from its winter hibernation just like the bears. Come August, Filippo told us, the streets will be thronged with Italians on their summer holidays. The tour I was on, with Exodus Adventure Travels, is part of a wider collaborative effort in the region to educate people about the benefits of coexisting with bears and wolves. Despite misconceptions, the Marsican brown bear is rather shy and not at all aggressive (reassuring when you're sitting on a lonely mountainside armed only with a pair of walking poles). There have never been any bear attacks on humans here, and wolves prefer to steer clear. Exodus donates all profits from the sale of the trips to Rewilding Apennines, who are maintaining what they call 'bear-smart corridors,' which link the Abruzzo with nature reserves and other national and regional parks in the Apennines. By minimising human-bear conflict in these more densely populated and unprotected areas, they hope to encourage the bears to roam more widely and find new areas where they feel safe. A night in the wild Our overnight stay at the Rifugio Terraegna, a mountain lodge 1,780m above sea level, was a high point of the trip in both senses of the word. We trekked through ancient beech forests, admiring the lichens cloaking the live trees and marvelling at the life that still teemed in the dead ones – holes made by beetles and woodpeckers, and hoof fungus up the trunks like stepping stones. Our group of six, strangers when we set off but by now bonded (Exodus limits group sizes to eight), spent a magical early evening looking for wildlife across a wide valley with grazing horses and foals. We saw only a roe deer (and heard a tawny owl), but even a sudden downpour couldn't dampen our enthusiasm. As the clouds rolled on over the mountains and the sun broke through, a double rainbow appeared. Returning to the lodge, chilly but elated, our chef-host Debora welcomed us with a blazing fire on which to warm our toes, and a feast that included local aged pecorino, soft sheep's cheese rolled in 16 mountain herbs, and ' Marzolina' – the first goat's milk cheese of spring. Garlicky fennel sausages with grilled aubergines followed. Snuggled up with the rest of the pack in a dormitory, stuffed full of cheese and mountain air, I had the best sleep of the trip, my dreams inhabited by shadowy wild animals. In the end, I never saw a bear, but it didn't matter. I had seen their claw marks on posts, and their hair caught on fences and trees as they left their scent for others along the trail. I knew that somewhere in the forest, or high in a mountain cave, they were there, and that was enough. Essentials Anna was a guest of Exodus Adventure Travels. A six-day tour, Italian Apennines: Walks and Wildlife, costs from £1,449 per person, B&B, including one night in the Mountain Refuge, listed meals, transport and activities. Excluding flights. Departures include September 21 2025, May 17 and September 20 2026. Vueling flies from London Gatwick to Rome Fiumicino from £70 return. You also have the option to travel by train to Rome with Byway (arrange through Exodus); route via Paris with overnight stay in Turin, £714 return journey per person.
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
Hollyoaks actor turned huge sitcom star signs up for Celebrity Race Across The World alongside Strictly couple
A HOLLYOAKS actor turned huge sitcom star has signed up for Celebrity Race Across the World. Dylan Llewellyn, 32, appeared on the soap over a decade ago before finding major success on other shows. 4 4 He is swapping TV sets and bright lights for a gruelling travel challenge in the hit BBC series. Dylan and a teammate will dash across continents without flights or mobile phones. The last series of Celebrity Race Across the World aired last August and saw famous faces including Kelly Brook, Scott Mills, Jeff Brazier and Kola Bokinni race across South America. A rep for the show has been contacted for comment. From 2011 to 2012, Dylan played Martin "Jono" Johnson in Hollyoaks. But he achieved wider stardom with his role in Derry Girls as James Maguire. Set in the late 90s, the sitcom followed a group of girls (and one boy) navigating life in Derry, Northern Ireland during The Troubles. In particular, life in their Catholic school under headmistress Sister George Michael. Dylan played the lead role in Channel 4 sitcom Big Boys, where he portrayed a semi-fictionalised version of creator Jack Rooke. His character, Jack, was introduced as a shy and closeted University student grieving his father's death. Derry Girls star Dylan Llewellyn is worlds away from James Maguire in first look at new comedy Big Boys The show ultimately concluded earlier this year after three series on air. Since 2023, Dylan has co-starred as PC Kelby Hartford in BBC's Beyond Paradise. It comes as The Sun previously revealed a pair of Strictly lovers had signed up for Celebrity Race Across The World. Molly Rainford, 24, and Tyler West, 29, found romance on the Saturday night favourite in 2022. Race Across The World - Winners so far Since launching in 2019, BBC travel competition series Race Across The World has had four series to date. Let's take a look at back at the winners so far... Series one: Elaine and Tony Teasdale: This married couple, who are retired PE teachers, won the very first series of Race Across The World. Series two: Emon and Jamiul Choudhury: The uncle and nephew duo emerged victorious in the show's second outing. Series three: Tricia Sail and Cathie Rowe: These lifelong friends became the first non-familial pair to win a series. Series four: Alfie Watts and Owen Wood: Both aged 20, these friends bested four other pairs to win series four. A TV insider told The Sun: 'Molly and Tyler are a huge coup for the show. "They're popular with millions of viewers from their stints on Strictly, and Molly will bring in loads of EastEnders fans too. "They are a very adventurous pair and have brilliant chemistry, so bosses are confident they will become huge fan favourites.' Celebrity Race Across The World airs on BBC One and iPlayer.
