Moseley Bog Nature Reserve

Once fair-​weather arrives I regularly go to Moseley Bog to have a good old game of ‘Frisbee Golf’. Essentially it’s where you substitute a Frisbee in place of a golf club and ball. By the end of the game I’ve ventured through a lot of Moseley bog — as a result of my horrendously unpredictable technique I regularly find myself rummaging through the dense flora to try and find my elusive frisbee. Splendid way to spend the day it is.
It is all the more splendid, because Moseley Bog provides a huge expanse of greenery and patches of dense woodland. It’s really lovely to be able to go to somewhere that is somewhat unadulterated (in comparison to most places in Birmingham anyway) and to wander through nature’s wild growth which is indifferent to human being’s desire for easy, unobstructed passage.
You can escape from all of the mod-​cons and the incessant metropolitan buzz (apart from the occasional siren) when you’re in Moseley Bog. Which makes it a pleasant, untamed sanctuary to immerse yourself in whilst still being in the depths of the city.

One of the curious things I’ve found about Birmingham is that for a city that has a reputation for being ugly, it has a large number of areas of natural beauty hidden away. Moseley Bog is one of them. As the name suggests, it’s an area of boggy woodland with plenty of nooks and cranies to poke about in. Though there’s plenty of raised wooden pathways, it could still be hard work for those unsteady on their feet, with plenty of small hills and steps to negotiate.
There’s also plenty there for those for foragers on the hunt for wild foods. Get there at the right time in spring and you can come away with bags and bags of wild garlic.
In conclusion, a great little escape from the pressures of city life.

Moseley bog is a small natural wood in the south of the city that is perhaps most famous for its connections to Tolkien who lived nearby and spent some of his childhood playing in the area. A few years ago this was quite a wild, abandoned and unloved looking place. However, since the release of Lord of the Rings, the establishment of the Middle Earth weekend and the support of local groups such as the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham Moseley Bog has taken on a bit of a transformation and the recent introduction of walk-​ways make it an easier place to explore. You can access the bog via Yardley Wood Road or through Pensby Close and it’s a lovely place to visit in the spring when blue-​bells are out in force. Interesting fact — as well as being linked to Tolkien, it’s said that a house next to the bog was once used by Birmingham based reggae band UB40 for some of their earlier recordings…