Country diary: For now, this heathland is in good hands

The soil, a storyteller of great wisdom, assured me I was in the right place. The ash-grey layer, lacking colour and nutrients, spoke of many thousand years' formation. A lifetime of high rainfall and acid conditions had forged a soil ideal for the habitat I sought: heathland.

Heswall dales western lowland heath, a site of special scientific interest and a local nature reserve, is one of only two remaining on the Wirral peninsula in north-west England. The 29 hectares (72 acres) of well-draining desert sandstone, coupled with prevailing acid conditions, had created a mosaic of heathers, bilberry and western gorse . Today's heaths are threatened, with 85% of England's having been lost over the past 150 years. I was visiting a habitat of some rarity and sensitivity.

Heswall residents call their heath "the dales". My mother's tales of "crossing the dales" with her siblings always hinted romantically of exciting derring-do. Great-grandma loved the dales. As I walked narrow, well-trodden paths that grey, late-summer day could I be walking in great-grandma's footsteps from a century ago? Would she have witnessed a twin landscape to that laid out before me? She could not have known how heathlands would succumb to the challenges of urbanisation, afforestation and agricultural intensification. Many of the houses now bordering this landscape did not exist in her day.

Birch leaves drifted on the path, autumn lurking in the wings. I paused to look beyond the heath's boundary to the nearby River Dee and beyond to Wales, the land of my fathers. Trees wafted gently and rhythmically: arboreal respiration. Birdlife was surprisingly quiet apart from a robin practising its newly acquired autumnal voice. Then a call I knew: a green woodpecker, bird invisible but heard.

The climate crisis, with its potential for higher temperatures and more frequent droughts, will leave the dales prone to fires. The Friends of Heswall Dales care for the site, managing the vegetation, and protecting its wildlife. For now, this heathland is in good hands.

Time's arrow touched my visit: the deep time of soil development, the century-old time of great-grandma, and recent time of a habitat at risk. What of its future?

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