Root and Branch is the RTÉ lyric fm podcast all about our native trees presented by Brían Mac Gloinn and Anja Murray. In Episode 2 we look at Hazel (Coll in Irish).
This small tree that has always been one of the most indispensable for our ancient ancestors.
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Hazel grows as many long straight rods that were a staple building material, used for wattle and daub walls, for thatching, and for making fish traps and fences. Brían and Anja meet with Aidan O Sullivan and colleagues at the school of archaeology in UCD as they construct an early medieval homestead, made almost entirely of hazel.
Anja also visits an oceanic Hazel wood in County Clare with ecologist Maria Long, where they see the incredible richness of wildlife that make these woodlands so special. Brían and friends perform a newly composed song about the many uses of Hazel and perform traditional tunes referencing Hazel.
From our friends at the Tree Council of Ireland
Hazel/ Coll/ Corylus avellana
A native species with many uses and an ancient history. Hazel nuts are one of the foods associated with the very earliest human settlements in Ireland of Mesolithic man, who also used hazel as the strong flexible timber for his huts.
Hazel bushes may be coppiced i.e. cut right back to a stump, and will re-grow. The slender timber poles that result from coppicing were used in the construction of wattle and daub, and fences. Hazel is also a traditional material in the construction of eel and lobster traps. Hazel grows as an under storey in oak and ash woodlands or as pure hazel woods.
Hazel scrub woodland covers extensive areas of limestone, particularly on the Burren plateaus of north Clare and soils derived from limestone in the Glens of Antrim. It is often associated with a rich ground flora of woodland flowers. Hazel is well known for its yellow 'lambs tail' catkins in spring, but the nuts grow from small bud-like structures with a tuft of red – the stigma of the female flowers.
Root and Branch
Presenters: Anja Murray and Brían Mac Gloinn
Produced by: Anja Murray
Original score and songs by Brían Mac Gloinn
Sound Design & Editing: Brían Mac Gloinn
Producer for RTÉ lyric fm: Eoin O Kelly
Production Co-ordinator: Peter Curtin
Root and Branch will be broadcast on the Lyric Feature at 6pm on RTÉ lyric fm.
