Forest bathing at Hayley Wood

Hayley Wood, near Longstowe in west Cambridgeshire, is one of the largest ancient woods in the county. It is recorded in the Domesday Book, its boundaries have hardly changed in 800 years, and it once belonged to the Bishops of Ely. It became the Wildlife Trust's first nature reserve in 1962. Oak, ash, elm, maple, hazel, aspen and sallow grow on the boulder clay; the oldest trees are ash and maple coppice stools, and one oak is over 400 years old.

There is no formal car park. The Trust's leaflet says to park on the verge opposite the water tower on the B1046, about a mile beyond Longstowe, and walk about 300 metres up Hayley Lane. Inside, the main ride runs past the coppice plots to the Roundabout, where two rides meet and there is an information shelter. Spring is the time for the pale yellow oxlips, a flower found only in East Anglia, and for bluebells; oxlip numbers have recovered since a deer fence went up in 2002. The clay gets heavy after rain.