[Home] [Nature Trail] [Archaeological Trail]
[Pictures Of Doon] [Sounds]

Hazel: Coil: Cory Lus Avellana.

The hazel is more often a shrub than a tree. Its bright yellow catkins are a welcome sight in late winter. The hazel grows to a height of two to six metres. It can have several trunks and slender branches. The bark is brown and smooth.

Leaves: Alternating on stem, 5 - 12cm, nearly circular, narrowly pointed, doubly toothed, base notched, slightly hairy especially below; stalk 8 - 15mm.

Flowers: Both male and female. The male is a hanging catkin 'lamb's tails'; the female bud-like, bright red.

Fruit: 1 - 4 rounded woody-shelled nuts in greenish cup.

A hazel is the tree of knowledge in Irish traditions and its nuts and its staves conferred it 'a noble of the wood'. A hazel nut kept in the pocket wards off rheumatism and lumbago!? hazel or willow is sometimes used for locating water or ore deposits. Although it is regarded by some as indulging in superstition 'Dowsers' are even still called upon to perform their skill.

In former times when trees were valuable private property, fines for damage were calculated according to the extent of damage, e.g. whether cut at a branch, a fork, or the base and also the timber quality. Highest in value came the 'seven nobles of the wood':- ash, oak, hazel, holly, yew, scots pine and crab apple.

Before the arrival of the potato, the hazel nuts were a major food source. The prehistoric people of Doon could rely on the stored nuts when other foods were scarce. Being wild, free and abundant here, they are fully appreciated only by the woodland animals such as the wood mouse, the wood pigeon and elsewhere squirrels (unfortunately none here) also the jay and pheasant. Placenames derived from Coil are common in Ireland - Slieve Callan, Co. Clare.

[The Rabbit] [The Badger] [Ivy] [Honeysuckle] [Moss] [Common Oak] [Pedunculate Oak] [Lichens] [Common Lime]
[The Hedgehog] [The Bramble] [The Chiffchaff] [The Frog Hopper] [Hawthorn] [Tree Roots]
[The Wood Mouse] [The Pigmy Shrew] [The Sycamore] [The Guelder Rose] [The Ash] [Gorse] [Hazel] [Tootworth]
[Goat Willow] [The Rowan] [Common White Beam] [Spindle] [Dog Rose] [The Blackthorn] [Birds] [Grasshoppers & Crickets] [Dragonfly & Damesify] [Feral Goat] [Silver Birch] [Pine Martin] [Fungi] [Lough Carra] [Brown Trout] [The Mute Swan]
[The Otter] [Limestone] [Holly] [The Fox] [The Mighty Oak] [Common Polypody] [Treecreeper] [The Irish Stoat]
[The Hornbeam] [Bats]