Sensing Nature Guided Walks at Westonbirt, The National Arboretum Lead by Visually Impaired Volunteer Guides

Time to explore the wonderful surroundings of Westonbirt, the National Arboretum as RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey joins one of their recent Sensing Nature Guided walks lead by two visually impaired Volunteer guides.

The Sensing Nature Guided Walks were also part of 'Westonbirt Unseen’, a collaboration between Westonbirt, Andy Shipley of Natural Inclusion, Sarah Bell of Sensing Nature, and the University of Exeter. This initiative is part of the wider ‘Re-Storying Landscapes for Social Inclusion’ project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Through the Sensing Nature Guided Walks Westonbirt's visually impaired guides lead bookers through an immersive and interactive sensory experience that aims to shift their perception, enjoy the arboretum at a slower pace and explore the trees of Westonbirt through their nonvisual senses.

Toby's visit to Westonbirt begins with an interview with Mark and Mike the two visually impaired Volunteer Guides to find out why they wanted to get involved with the project and lead sighted people around Westonbirt on The Sensing Nature Guided Walks. Their involvement in the setup of the walks and how much of a collaborative process it was working on the walks with input from everyone involved. Then Mark and Mike went on to explain a bit more about the exercises that participants get involved in on the walks to use their senses apart from their sight to get closer to the trees, smells and sounds that are all around them in Westonbirt.  

Toby also captured elements of the sensing Nature Guided Walk along with some of the exercises mark and Mike invited bookers to do on the walk such as closing their eyes, feeling the ground through their feet, feeling the wind, listening to the sounds around them along with the smells of the trees, grass and leaves. In another exercise where Mark asked bookers to take a picture and memory of Westonbirt by looking around them and then closing their eyes and putting the images of what they saw into their memory to recall later and one exercise where bookers were invited to take a walk around the low branches of a tree to gage it's height. 

At the end of the sensing Nature Guided Walk, Toby caught up with Cotty and Nick, two of the sighted bookers, to find out what the walk was like for them, how they found the whole walk and the exercises that Mark and Mike asked them to do.  Whether being asked to close their eyes and using their other senses gave them a different and maybe better experience of Westonbirt. Also for Cotty and Nick having just spent over an hour and a half on the walk with Mark and Mike did they feel that they had a better understanding around what life might be like for someone who is blind or partially sighted.

The Sensing Nature Guided Walks at Westonbirt, The National Arboretum take place every second and fourth Friday of the month from April to September starting at 2pm and more details can be found by visiting the following website -

https://www.forestryengland.uk/westonbirt/sensing-nature-walks


(Image shows: A tall dark green Serbian spruce tree in the Arboretum that appears thin and needle-like in comparison to the surrounding trees. The sun is shining just out of shot, there is a slight lens flare at the top of the photograph and the sky is blue with a few small clouds.)