Brewery Tap & Beavers

Though the pub in Mitcheldean was rather down at heel there was the Brewery Tap a sort of micro pub attached to the Bespoke Brewery. Four beers on, of course I started completely with the wrong one! A stout called Money for Old Rope, I didn't realise it was a stout or I wouldn't have tried it however it went down! Next was much nicer called Over a Barrel, it was 5% and much more to my liking, a rich ruby colour. I have got a taste for the lighter coloured beers and Bespoke Brewery didn't let me down with Saved by the Bell, at 3.8% and Golden Rule at 4% classed as a session beer, a nice light gold colour to it. The beers were all really nice (with the exception of the Stout that tasted like cough mixture), the place itself was lively and friendly, it's only open Thurs/Fri & Saturdays so we only got to go once but there you are.

Stout!

The Brewery and Brewery Tap the site of an old Victorian brewery long gone

Beavers are being reintroduced into the Forest of Dean, at the moment there's a large fenced area with a deep gorge and stream for them near a place called The Pludds. It took Ida & I about an hour to walk round the perimeter of their enclosure so its pretty big, didn't see any Beavers, I expect they were well hidden away. I'm not too sure about reintroducing animals like Beavers, they are destructive in making their lodges. They became extinctic here 400 years ago so the eco-structure has developed without them, who knows what they'll do if they are ever released from this enclosure.
Saw these beetles as well, they are on old horse dung it looks like. I suppose they are probably Dung Beetles but I thought they were bigger than these.

A good view of the fencing around the Beaver enclosure

  Also found quite an interesting memorial on top of a beacon called Pan Tod dedicated to the Free Miners of the Forest of Dean who had been killed in accidents over the years. Not much of an area to walk though as there was quite afew houses near by and any public footpaths near were so overgrown they were impassable.

It's a strange area the Forest of Dean. There's not really all that much to see & we found ourselves going outside the forest during the week, Symonds Yat was pretty spectacular and my walks in the forest were good but I don't think it's an area we'll come back to again, that's not to say we didn't have a good week, the cottage we stayed in was really good, we had a very relaxing time.