I love forests. Real forests I mean, not forest plantations which are just endless rows of trees planted for human profit. A real forest is more than a bunch of trees, it is an ecosystem with countless interacting lifeforms. And a real forest has a specific character, you might even call it a personality. You could say a forest is a life form beyond an individual. Now this may sound weird to some people, but so are we in a way. We are full of bacteria and without them we will die. In fact we have more bacterial DNA in our bodies than we have human DNA; we are also a cooperation of lifeforms. A forest is just a cooperation on a bigger scale and much more complex.
Now this forest – Knocksink wood – has an interesting personalty. It is not a very big forest, but it feels magic. This is what Ireland might have looked liked before the English cut it all down to build ships and conquer the world.
The forest is located in Enniskerry, Ireland. An hour by bus from the center of Dublin.
What a forest, I walked around with an open mouth. No tourist to be seen, but what a forest. It is lush and green and bursting with life, there’s something growing everywhere, ferns, moss, blackberries, trees, forest.
Glencullen river is the backbone of the forest. It gives the forest a moist atmosphere, even when these pictures were taken which was during a big drought. The sound of the river masks human sounds and gives you a feeling of being far away from civilization.
