Fairytale Forests: Poland's Crooked Forest, Białowieża and 3 More

Some forests look as if they were drawn for a book of fairy tales: pines that bow to the ground, a jungle island no outsider may enter, Europe's last primeval woodland, a Transylvanian wood full of ghost stories and a bamboo grove that hums in the wind. Here are five real forests from Poland to Japan, and the true stories behind them.

1. The Crooked Forest, Poland

Near the village of Nowe Czarnowo, outside the town of Gryfino in north-west Poland, about 400 Scots pines grow with a sharp bend at the base. Each trunk swings out sideways by 1 to 3 m just above the ground, almost always to the north, and then turns upright again to reach a height of about 15 m. Ordinary straight pines stand all around them.

The grove was planted around 1930, when the area belonged to the German province of Pomerania. Most people believe the trees were shaped by hand, perhaps to grow naturally curved timber for furniture or boat building, but no record of the method survives. A heavy snowstorm bending the young trees is another theory, with little evidence behind it. The Crooked Forest is now a protected natural monument and open to visitors; Gryfino lies about 20 km south of Szczecin.

2. North Sentinel Island, Bay of Bengal

North Sentinel Island, in India's Andaman Islands, is a 60 km² block of tropical moist forest ringed by a coral reef that stretches up to 1.5 km offshore. It lies about 36 km west of Wandoor on South Andaman.

It is also home to the Sentinelese, one of the world's last uncontacted peoples. Estimates of their number range from 50 to 400. The islanders have made clear for generations that they want to be left alone, and India protects that choice: under the Andaman and Nicobar (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation of 1956, travel to the island or close approach is forbidden, and the surrounding waters form an exclusion zone. The only peaceful meeting on record came on 4 January 1991, when anthropologist Triloknath Pandit's team, including Madhumala Chattopadhyay, handed over coconuts at the shore; visits ended in 1997.

The Sentinelese survived the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which lifted the island by one to two metres and exposed large parts of the reef. The forest is best admired the way it appears here, from far away.

3. Białowieża Forest, Poland and Belarus

Białowieża is the last large remnant of the primeval lowland forest that once covered much of Europe. It straddles the border between Poland and Belarus, and its UNESCO World Heritage Site, first listed in 1979 and enlarged in 1992 and 2014, covers about 1,419 km².

Polish and Lithuanian kings kept it as a royal hunting ground; in 1426 King Władysław II Jagiełło sheltered from a plague in a wooden manor at Białowieża, and from 1888 the forest was the Russian tsar's private hunting reserve. That protection kept the oldest trees standing. The Patriarch Oak on the Belarusian side is more than 550 years old and 31 m tall.

The forest is also the home of the European bison. In 1923 only 54 survived worldwide, all in zoos. Poland bought four animals in 1929, and today more than 800 roam the forest. Białowieża National Park on the Polish side, created in 1932, protects the oldest core of the woodland. Its strict reserve can only be entered with a licensed guide, on foot, by bike or by horse-drawn carriage, starting from Białowieża village.

4. Hoia-Baciu Forest, Romania

On the western edge of Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania's largest city, the Hoia-Baciu Forest covers about 3 km² of hillside next to the open-air section of the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania. It has a reputation as one of the most haunted forests in the world.

Local legend says it is named after a shepherd who vanished here with a flock of 200 sheep. In 1968 a military technician, Emil Barnea, photographed what he said was a UFO hovering over the forest's famous round clearing, an oval meadow where the trees stop abruptly. Since then the forest has appeared in TV shows such as Ghost Adventures and Destination Truth, and night tours lead visitors through it.

By day it is a favourite recreation spot for the people of Cluj, with a bike park and trails. Archaeologists have also found traces of one of Romania's oldest Neolithic settlements just north of the forest.

5. Sagano Bamboo Forest, Japan

In the Sagano area of Arashiyama, on Kyoto's western edge, a path a few hundred metres long runs between towering stands of bamboo. The grove is famous for its sound: in 1996 Japan's Ministry of the Environment included the bamboo forest of Kyoto in its list of the 100 Soundscapes of Japan. The path links the north gate of Tenryū-ji, a Zen temple founded in 1339 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with Nonomiya Shrine. It is about a 10-minute walk from Saga-Arashiyama Station on the JR Sagano Line; come early in the morning for the quietest walk. Our Arashiyama guide has the full details.

More enchanted woodland: explore five contrasting forest settings or Ellie Davies’s woodland art.

Related reading:

• Arashiyama’s Bamboo Grove: Sound, Light and a Kyoto Walk
• Angel Oak on Johns Island: Age, Scale and Visiting the Tree
• The President Sequoia in a 126-Frame Portrait
• Milan’s Bosco Verticale: How Trees Became Part of the Buildings
• Twenty Tree Tunnels: Flowering Streets, Garden Arches and Woodland Paths
• Klevan’s Tunnel of Love: The Railway behind the Green Arch
• Rua Gonçalo de Carvalho: Porto Alegre’s Tree-Lined Street

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