The road from the west to the Mossy Well runs through woodland. Once the trees would have extended much further:
… a vast forest, its copses dense with foliage concealing wild animals – stags, does, boars, and wild bulls.
Now the Mossy Well has become the North London suburb of Muswell Hill and the forest has shrunk to two small patches along either side of the main road from Highgate tube station (some parts of it still exist elsewhere, although sometimes only in name such as at St Johns Wood).
The woodland to the north of the road is called Highgate Wood and is the least interesting. It is run by the City of London and is managed more as a park than a wood. To the south of the road lies Queens Wood; this one is managed by the local authority, Haringey Council, which does not have the same budget as the Corporation so it is left to its own devices, which makes more interesting.
It still has a feel of that ancient and vast woodland. As you stroll along the footpaths that lead up and down perhaps you may disturb the ghost of one of those wild aninals that used to call it their home?
Autumn
One of the best times to visit Queens Wood is in the autumn as the leaves turn and begin to fall, covering the ground burnished by the low sunlight.
Here are a few photographs I took on a recent stroll through the woods at just that time of year. I hope you like them.
