Country diary: slow growth on the edge of oblivion

Buxton, Derbyshire: Yews have steel-like strength and the ability to grow in unlikely places – even out of pure rockCorbar Woods holds a cluster of wonderful yew trees running round the top of an old 18th-century quarry. Nature has softened the vertical faces into a series of steep-sided but curved hollows, and the yews cleave to the edges, creating a permanent arcade of dense shadow. It gives the wood a gothic quality that the trees reinforce by throwing out a network of writhing root sto