Knucklebone floor

We walked in the wonderful Allen Banks in Northumberland yesterday, where the spring foliage on the trees was looking almost luminous. On the way we passed .....

...... this extraordinary knucklebone floor, on the site of a former summer house. I've blogged about this before but am doing so again because there are now a few more web sites with information about these strange floors. Knucklebones were a construction material that seems to have been most popular in the early 18th. century but there are also 19th. century examples. They were were made by hammering sheep knucklebones into the ground to form a hard, durable floor. I suppose the modern equivalent is block paving.

Some knucklebone links:

A deer knucklebone floor in Devon - another picture here

Preparation of sheep knucklebones for making a floor

These bones have been worn smooth by passing feet, exposing some of their internal structure.

The Allen Banks summer house floor is circular .....

...... and it must have had a magnificent view across the river Allen gorge from this high vantage point.

Rhinocerus beetle

We found this newly emerged specimen of a Rhinocerus beetle Sinodendron cylindricum on an old beech log in Allen Banks. Unfortunately the rotten wood fragments clinging to its head, where it forced its way out of the wood that it has fed on as a grub, partially concealed the 'horn' in the centre of its head and it scuttled away before I could brush them off for a better photo.

It has spikes protruding from either side of its thorax, in addition to the horn on its head.

The Knuckle Bones of Allen Banks

In today's Guardian Country Diary there's an account of a visit to Allen Banks - the spectacular wooded gorge that flanks the River Allen in Northumberland, before its confluence with the River Tyne, west of Hexham. It was only our second visit there and I've been kicking myself ever since for not visiting more often - especially at this time of year, when it's a terrific place for finding fungi. This magnificent specimen of what I think is common puffball Lycoperdon perlatum was growing amongst last year's decaying beech leaves............



..... while this, which I think is sulphur-tuft Hypholoma fasciculare was sprouting from rotting beech roots.

 

Perhaps the most curious feature, though, was a strange artifact that can be found on a high bluff at the end of the path that climbs up the west side of the valley, before the steep descent down towards the river, in the green patch of  moss visible in the left foreground in the photo above. At this point the view ahead and far below, of the densely wooded gorge that leads upstream to Plankey Mill, is truely stunning but .....

.... if you can take you eyes off the view for a moment and happen to glance down at your feet you soon realise you are standing on something rather strange......... 

.......... a platform made of sheep knuckle bones, hammered into the path and worn smooth by passing feet. Does anyone out there know more about this weird and slightly macabre feature of this woodland walk?