Ten years ago, the Ash Dome was an elegant, twisting circle of beautiful trees. Ash dieback had not yet reached this corner of Wales. Returning now to this secret location near Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, I steeled myself for heartbreak. And there it was.
Today, the Ash Dome, a living sculpture by the renowned artist David Nash, is an elephant’s graveyard. Pale, twisted limbs encircle a heap of dead branches. On a few trunks, new shoots spring innocently upwards, but most are ailing, their bark white and flaky as dead skin.
A concept born in the 1970s
As a young man, disillusioned with the London art scene, Nash moved to Blaenau and began work on this small piece of woodland belonging to his father. Ash Dome was his answer to the problem of how to create outdoor sculpture in wood. Instead of trying to preserve a form, why not grow it instead? So, in 1977, he planted a ring of 22 ash trees that has since become a beloved artwork, featuring on a BBC Four ident. It was, he says, “aimed at the 21st century”. What he can’t have predicted was both a fracturing climate and deadly fungus.
Accepting nature’s course
He walks up the mossy pathway to meet me. He greets the ashes as old friends and leans companionably against one, both man and tree weatherbeaten and timeworn. He explains that Ash Dome is primarily a piece of conceptual art. “This is outdoor sculpture that’s actually of its place,” he says. “So going back to that concept, I had to accept the fungus as a natural element.”
Rather than try to save the ashes, he decided to plant a ring of 22 oak trees around them. The oaks, now seven years old, are strong and healthy, though not yet ready to be fletched and pruned into shape: that is a task for David’s sons and others after he and the ashes are gone.
A slow metamorphosis
We stand together in the deep, green light of the wood, witnessing this slow metamorphosis. David has spent a lifetime working with natural processes, shaping and encouraging rather than forcing. His response to their inevitable death is an act of creativity and grace. It’s impossible to stay heartbroken. The Oak Dome is coming.
Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024, is available now at guardianbookshop.com
