SLB #9: Hawthorn Hideaway
(previously called Hawthorn Hideaway)
The cache is now incorporated as the 9th of a 10-cache series circuiting through some fine countryside to the west of Burley-in-Wharfedale.
For background info on the trail including a Map (also available in this cache's Gallery) showing caches and parking spots, and waypoints for parking | trail access, see GC7E48T SLB#1: What a Tip!.
The cache, a small screw-topped camo’ed plastic pot, is hidden in a gnarled hawthorn stump besides a (sometimes) babbling brook.
To reach the cache location: at N 53 54.887 W 1 45.164 on Main Street, Burley-in-Wharfedale turn west onto Sun Lane and follow this for some 700m to the road-side parking at N 53 54.874 W 1 45.687. From here, head up the lane, past the location of GC7F3V6 Sun Lane RXR - Dismount!, over the railway and on up the footpath crossing the field.
‘Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade
To shepherds looking on their silly sheep,
Than doth a rich embroidered canopy
To kings that fear their subjects' treachery?’
- William Shakespeare
‘This wild, beautiful, gnarly and thorny little ancient tree is also known by many other names, such as Whitethorn, Hægthorn, Queen of the May, Quickthorn, or just May, and can grow to a ripe old age. It is one of our oldest, most sacred, and beautiful trees. Often known as the 'faerie tree', the hawthorn has rich and varied folklore associated with it. Mostly growing in strange and hauntingly beautiful shapes, it can be found in the wildest and harshest spots . . .’ (from the JustBod blog)
Crataegus from the Greek kratos ‘strength’ and akis ‘sharp’, referring to the thorns of some species commonly
called hawthorn, thornapple, May-tree, whitethorn or hawberry, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia and North America.
The name ‘hawthorn’ was originally applied to the species native to northern Europe, especially the common hawthorn C. monogyna [‘one-seed’ hawthorn - the species hiding the cache] and the unmodified name is often so used in Britain and Ireland. The name haw, originally an Old English term for hedge, applies to the fruit. It can become an invasive weed.
They are shrubs or small trees, mostly growing to 5-15m with small pome fruit (or ‘haw’) and (usually) thorny branches. The most common type of bark is smooth grey in young individuals, developing shallow longitudinal fissures with narrow ridges in older trees.
The thorns are small sharp-tipped branches that arise either from other branches or from the trunk, and are typically 1-3 cm long. The leaves grow spirally arranged on long shoots, and in clusters on spur shoots on the branches or twigs. The leaves of most species have lobed or serrated margins and are somewhat variable in shape.
Continues with GC7Y846 WRW #26: Hawthorn High Level hidden along the Dales Way footpath between Addingham and Farfield . . .