Summer Walk No3, Bolam Lake Country Park - Tuesday 27th July 2021.

 

On Tuesday 27th July 2021, Summer Walk No 3 saw Morpeth Camera Club members gather in the car park
at Boathouse Wood for an informal evening walk around Bolam Lake Country Park.

The centrepiece of the park is the lake which covers over twenty-five acres, but most visitors are unaware
that it is man-made and not a natural feature. In 1816, Lord Decies who lived at Bolam Hall, commissioned
the architect John Dobson to design a woodland park with a lake on the Bolam estate, in an area known as
the Bolam Bog. This bog was then dug out and lined with clay to retain the water. Spoil from the excavations
was used to form islands and over a two year period the area was fed by small streams and springs and the
lake created.

Following the current one-way system to maintain social distancing we headed down to the water's edge for
our first views of the lake and images of some of the resident population of mute swans. Continuing in an
anti-clockwise direction we walked west and followed the path through mature woodland to Pheasant Field
and as the name suggests, this was an area of open park that was once used for rearing pheasants on the
Bolam Estate.

  

Leaving this area we joined a raised walkway that led us through the dense West Wood to the rear of the
dedicated nature reserve at the west end of the lake and round to a large wooden bird hide that has been
constructed for visitor use. The lake is also popular with fishermen and is stocked with bream, perch, pike,
roach and tench.

After the recent fine weather we were no so lucky tonight and as thunder rumbled overhead the first heavy
shower created patterns on the surface of the water. Most of the banks of the lake are overhung by trees
and shrubs, including Oak, Alder, Beech and Rhododendron and these gave good cover from the odd shower
as we photographed reeds and flowering waterlilies in the lake.

The group gathered at the jetty at Low House Wood for images of swans and ducks before completing our
circular walk of the lake via the path at the eastern end that incorporates the dam wall. Thank you to the
ten members who supported another enjoyable photographic evening.

  

Davy Bolam.