Glenmore Forest Park

Glenmore Forest Park 

remnant of the Caledonian Forest near Aviemore, Badenoch and Strathspey, Highland, Scotland. It is located in the Cairngorms National Park, The park surrounds Loch Morlich, and is below the rise of the Cairngorms.The forest is home to much wildlife including Scottish Crossbill, Crested Tit, Capercaillie and Red Deer.Glenmore Lodge was made using 590,351 bricks. It has 47 individual panes of glass all fitted into 29 windows. it was made using 13 different kinds of wood

The history of The Caledonian Forests were formed at the end of the last ice age. Trees began to recolonise what is now the British Isles over a land bridge which is now beneath the English Channel. Forests of this type were found all over what is now the island of Great Britain for a short period, before the climate began to slowly warm and the pinewoods retreated north into theScottish Highlands, the last remaining climatic region suitable for them in the British Isles (see Climate of Scotland).

The native pinewoods which formed this westernmost outpost of the boreal forest of Europe are estimated to have covered 15,000 km²(3,700,000 acres) as a vast wilderness of Scots pine, birch, rowan, aspen, juniper, oak and a few other species. On the west coast, oak and birch predominated in a temperate rainforest ecosystem rich in ferns, mosses and lichens.

The forest takes its name from the Romans, who called Scotland Caledonia, deriving from the early Celtic word '*caleto-' meaning 'hard, strong'. A name recorded as being used by a local tribe or tribal confederation of native Picts or Britons called the Caledonii who were first recorded in a panegyric by the Roman poet Eumenius in AD 297.

Today less than 1% of the original native pinewood forest survives, in isolated remnants.

Legend and flokore : In Arthurian lore and early literature, the forest is the site of one of King Arthur's Twelve Battles, according to the Historia Brittonum, in which the battle is called Cat Coit Celidon. Scholars Rachel Bromwich and Marged Haycock suggest that the army of trees animated by sorcerers in the Old Welsh poem Cad Goddeu (The Battle of the Trees) are intended to be the Caledonian Forest.

In related Merlin literature, the figure of Myrddin Wyllt retreated to these woods in his madness after the battle of Arfderydd in the year 573. He fled from the alleged wrath of the king ofStrathclyde, Rhydderch Hael, after the slaying of Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio. This is written in the two Merlinic poems in Middle Welsh Yr Oinau and Yr Afallenau in the Black Book of Carmarthen. The forest is also the retreat of another character named Lailoken from the Vita Kentigerni, who also fled into the woods in a fit of madness and who may be the original model for Myrddin Wyllt.

In the Middle Welsh story Culhwch ac Olwen, the main character Culhwch is the son of a king named Celyddon Wledig who may or may not be related to the forest in name. Another figure from the same story, Cyledyr Wyllt hints at a close relationship of the forest being a retreat for people who suffered from a special kind of madness or Gwyllt (Geilt in Irish). In line 994 to 996 of the story, it is briefly explained, "...a Chyledyr Wyllt y uab, a llad Nwython a oruc a diot y gallon, a chymhell yssu callon y dat, ac am hynny yd aeth Kyledyr yg gwyllt"("...and his son Kyledyr the Wild. Gwynn killed Nwython and cut out his heart, and forced Kyledyr to eat his father's heart, and that is how Kyledyr went mad"). Though not named directly, the very name Kyledyr Wyllt is close to the two related notions of the forest of Celyddon being where people suffering madness or Gwyllt hide. (wikipedia)