Kennal Vale

Kennal Vale is a little tiny nature reserve. Chances are that you would never find it by accident. The entrance to the reserve is on a tiny road that goes nowhere much. It looks as if you are entering the drive to someone's house but the path runs past the house to a gate. And still nothing looks that special or unique. Sure it looks pretty from the gate. A long path stretches along the side of a valley through trees with ferns and a river running somewhere near...

But the site is unique, it is one of my most favouritest places ever in fact. The valley has steep sides and the River Kennal runs through. This river looks like nothing more than a stream but in it's short trip to the sea it powered 39 mills in it's day. It is in fact the most powerful river in the country for no river can boast the ability to power so many mills per mile.

Some of the mills were used for making gunpowder, those in Kennall Vale itself. The mills were powered by water which has been channeled through a complex system of stone lined channels called leats. The valley is full of the river and the ruins of all these buildings. For gunpowder is dangerous stuff and the wet atmosphere of the valley was perfect for preventing explosions. Trees were planted between the different buildings to dampen any explosions and prevent them spreading from building to building. Of course there were accidents, and deaths, some of them gory...

The gunpowder works closed but the site was not dead. A quarry was begun on one side of the valley. The excavated material was placed on top of some of the gunpowder works buildings and new buildings were built on top. So the site has a whole host of industrial history....

There are three main paths, one on each side of the valley and one down the bottom by the river. The path on the mill side of the valley runs along side the leats as they run through the valley. It runs behind the mills and the water from the leats often crosses the path. As the leats descend the side of the valley, the path descends to, down steep steps alongside ruins.

The sound of the river is everywhere as it courses over rocks. It also goes over a weir and there are so many waterfalls, from the leats and the river....

On the other side of the valley is the quarry which is now flooded and backed by a sheer rock wall....

The trees the explosives workers planted have blossomed and the once industrial site is a haven for nature. As well as trees, tere are ferns, everywhere. They grow on the ruins, on the trees, just everywhere. Some of them are very rare as well...
I decided to take Little Dog for a walk there tonight. I also decided to take my brand new copy of Wreck This Journal there to (go see my other blog for some details on that!) It was lovely....