Landscape features of heritage value

I've posted about vintage fence posts before (what I hear you say!) but they really are gems in an often featureless landscape. Those that run adjacent to the now disused railway cutting at Waun afon bog are a case in point adding structural diversity to an upland landscape sometimes bereft of focal points. Like sun bleached sentinels their variety in shape and form, age and quality are surely of contemporary cultural value. Like culturally modified trees they are temporary features but with few champions. There's no organised recording project that document these boundary features, so over time will be lost, all to the detriment of future generations. Its a shame that these historic features are made of a natural product; if of stone or metal the full might of CADW and the sliver haired members of local history groups would be crawling all over them.

These ageing fence posts provide excellent nature conservation value. Encrusted with lichen and mosses they offer feeding perches for raptors and smaller upland breeding passerines. At Waun afon recently posts were used by calling stonechat, meadow pipit and even a wren. Butterflies too enjoy alighting on these features.