The Heart of the Woods

Wyl Menmuir

• Publisher: Aurum
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780711289253, 9780711289246
• eBook ISBN: 9780711289260
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Biological Sciences

WINNER of 2025 Award for Excellence by the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild

Just as a parent leaves a legacy to their child, a tree leaves a legacy to its surroundings. A deep and explorative companion piece to the Roger Deakin Award-winning The Draw of The Sea.

Throughout history, trees have determined the tools we use, the boats we build, the stories we tell about the world and ourselves, the songs we sing, and some of our most important rituals. As such, our lives are intertwined with those of the trees and woodlands around us.

In this journey deep into the woods, Wyl Menmuir travels the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland to meet the people who plant trees, the ecologists who study them, those who shape beautiful objects and tools from wood, and those who use them to help others.

Wyl also explores how our relationship with trees is enduring, now and in the future – what we get out of spending time around trees, the ways in which our relationship with them has changed over time, and the ways in which our future is interconnected with theirs.

Written in close collaboration with makers, crafters, bodgers, and woodsmen and women in order to better understand the woods they know so well, the joys and frustrations of working with a living material, and the stories of their craft and skills, The Heart of The Woods will delight anyone who enjoys walking among the trees, and anyone who, when lost, has found themselves in the woods.


Chapters include:

WOODLAND PLANTER: A woodland in becoming and an ancient yew grove on the border of North Wales and England

RITUAL WEAVER: Willow coffin making in Cornwall

WOODLORE GATHERER: Science among the trees at Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire

HEARTWOOD CARVER: Among the bodgers in a field outside Cambridge

BOAT BUILDER: A woodland community in the heart of Glasgow’s former docklands

LANDSCAPE SHAPER: Re-wilding the Scottish Highlands and an organised trespass in Devon

WISH WEARER: The clootie well at Munlochy on The Black Isle, Scottish Highlands, a family tree on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, and the tree at Sycamore Gap, Northumbria

FOREST BATHER: Swimming at Swallowship Pool, Devil’s Water, and Letah Woods Northumberland

MYTH WALKER: Walks in the fictional woods at Wenlock Edge, Shropshire

WAY FOLLOWER: Traditional carpentry in Takayama, Japan

FIRE LIGHTER: The stories we find among the flames and embers, Ennistymon, Ireland 

SOUND CREATOR: A pub on Ireland’s west coast and a guitar-builder in North Wales 

APPLE WAILER: Wassailing in Cornwall

TREE WORSHIPPER: An ancient yew grove in North Wales

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Map
• Contents
• 1. Woodland Planter: A woodland in becoming on the border between North Wales and England
• 2. Willow Weaver: Woodland burials and willow coffin-making in Cornwall
• 3. Woodlore Gatherer: Science among the trees at Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, and beneath them at Chalford, Gloucestershire
• 4. Heartwood Carver: Among the bodgers in a field outside Cambridge
• 5. Boat Builder: A Scillonian pilot cutter in the waters off Cornwall’s south coast, and a Highland birlinn in a green hollow in Glasgow’s former docklands
• 6. Landscape Roamer: Dendles Wood, Dartmoor, and a community forest in the Scottish Highlands
• 7. Wish Wearer: The clootie well at Munlochy on the Black Isle, Scottish Highlands, a family tree on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, and the tree at Sycamore Gap, Northumbria
• 8. Forest Bather: Swimming in the woods at Devil’s Water, Northumberland, and walking in Tomnafinnoge Woods, County Wicklow, Ireland
• 9. Myth Walker: Walks in the fictional woods at Wenlock Edge, Shropshire
• 10. Way Follower: In the workshops of traditional woodworkers in Takayama, and a sacred forest in Shibuya City, Tokyo
• 11. Seed Collector: Ireland’s ancient trees and a hidden fragment of oceanic rainforest in County Clare, Ireland
• 12. Fire Lighter: The stories we find among the flames and embers, Penzance, Cornwall
• 13. Apple Wailer: An orchard in St Day, Cornwall, and the Globe Theatre, London
• 14. Tree Worshipper: An ancient yew grove on the border between England and Wales
• A Glossary of Tree Words
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Index
• Dedication
• Copyright