Batsara Reserve

Batsara holds the largest natural yew grove on earth, and that is not a local boast but a claim confirmed by botanists more than once. The reserve lies north of Akhmeta in the tight gorge of the Batsara river and has been protected since 1935.

Yew, Taxus baccata, grows slowly and lives a very long time. Some trees here are between 1,500 and 2,000 years old, reach 25 to 30 metres and approach two metres in trunk diameter. Almost nowhere in Europe survives at that scale, because yew was cut for centuries to make bows and furniture and was never given time to recover.

Walking into the grove is genuinely strange. Yew casts a dark, almost black shade; nothing much grows underneath, the ground is a mat of needles, and sound is absorbed rather than reflected. Even on a bright day the interior is dim, and the temperature drops a few degrees as you step in.

The gorge holds more than yew: sweet chestnut, hornbeam, Caucasian lime, ferns and thick moss on every fallen trunk. Roe deer are common, bear tracks turn up regularly, black stork nest along the water, and eagles work the ridges above.

This is a strict nature reserve rather than a park. Paths are minimal, there is essentially no infrastructure, and walking freely is not permitted. Entry is only with a permit and in the company of a ranger. That restriction is exactly why the grove is still intact, and it is worth accepting rather than resenting.

Numbers give some sense of what is being protected. The strict reserve covers roughly three thousand hectares, of which the yew occupies several hundred, and a single mature tree may carry well over a thousand growth rings. When a storm brings one down it is recorded as an event, not written off as ordinary loss.