January is a gloomy time of year. The lights and joy of Christmas are behind us but spring is still a long way ahead. It’s a month to get through, not one to relish, and you’re probably making it worse by putting pressure on yourself to make a load of unrealistic life changes all at once. Enter Illuminations at the Blue Pool.
The Blue Pool is a flooded abandoned clay pit, where ball clay was mined for more than two hundred years. Its waters are a vivid turquoise blue, at least under a bright sun, because of particles of clay suspended in the water and that makes it a picturesque spot for a wander in the woods and a cup of something at the tearooms overlooking it.
Winter, I suspect, has never been its busiest season. It’s very much an outdoors attraction and no one really wants to be outdoors in cold weather. So the Blue Pool, or more likely its new owners, has created a new event to bring people over who wouldn’t normally come over at this time of year and definitely not at this time of night.
Illuminate at the Blue Pool is a lights trail! You turn up after dark and follow an illuminated path in a circle of about one kilometre through the woods around the pool. Nature, but augmented. The lights are coloured floodlights and they light the woods up in bright jewel tones, turning the trees pink and teal and yellow and lime and all sorts. When you’ve walked through the woods and had your fill of lights and trees and nature and fresh winter air, you can return to the tea rooms for either something warming or to sit on the terrace by the fire pits and maybe even toast a marshmallow.
I’ve never seen the Blue Pool in daylight. It’s not somewhere I’ve ever been. Truth be told, I kind of resent paying £5 to walk in the woods and have access to a tearoom where I can spend more money. I don’t begrudge it to the National Trust or the RSPB but this is a private enterprise. Ok, I guess it’s not entirely unreasonable to require payment for access to their private ground but back up just a few miles and you’ve got the entirety of Wareham Forest at your disposal for free, when it’s not on fire.
But for a light trail event, sure. That’s an event and I don’t begrudge in the least paying for an event. As I said, I don’t know what this place is like in daylight but at night, it dances back and forth between magical and eerie. I said that the Blue Pool is very blue because of clay particles. That also makes it quite opaque and when there’s no sunshine on it to turn it blue, it becomes very, very black. It’s like a mirror, reflecting the colourful lights around it. It also kind of looks like a portal to hell. Apparently it’s about thirty feet deep, which is in itself enough for me to never want to go in, but when all you can see is that black mirrored surface, you could well imagine devils, demons and all sorts of hell-beasties lurking beneath.
The woods remain magical. The trail is a bit muddy in places but nowhere could you imagine something emerging from it to drag you away. It would be really magical if it snowed. I can imagine the path might get quite muddy quite quickly but if it snowed tomorrow, I’d be booking another ticket to see the woods in all their colours in their full winter glory.
More places should put on winter events. There’s more to see and do in December than anyone could ever fit into their calendar and then there’s nothing until Easter. I don’t think the Blue Pool is going to start a revolution but I’d bet their January figures will look healthier than they ever have before and I’ve had a fun and unexpected evening out.
