The ground here is rarely dry, as witnessed by the growth of juncus. A little used track carries walkers, and the occasional mountain biker, to a wild plateau that overlooks a railway cutting last used over 60 years ago, and now seasonally swamped by a small stream that flows from the tunnel that leads from it. The nearest mature beech tree is a good hundred yards (91 metres) distant. So, how did this large trunk arrive here, and why?
The only answer I have is a partially informed guess.
The tree this large branch once called its parent was damaged in a storm a couple of years past. The fallen branches (there were three altogether) fell across the rough road leading to a quarry used by the forest owners for stone to both sell and to use in woodland projects. Those fallen branches had to be shifted. Usually, such good quality timber is reduced to logs of a size that can be transported by road and sold to a timber mill.
Here’s the guesswork. The quarrymen work with stone, not timber. The logs were in the way. They shifted this one to a spot where it would be no longer a nuisance (the other two were smaller and cut into shorter lengths, and remain at the side of the road, not stacked for sale, but apparently abandoned. Perhaps, and here’s the optimist in me, they decided this one should be left to slowly decay and form a habitat for the many small creatures that inhabit the forest and perform vital functions in terms of the ecosystem. I hope that’s why this fallen giant remains supine in a spot definitely unsuited to the seasoning of timber!

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