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Thirty dead alder trees in a line, by my rough count, lean over a stretch of the Cannich River. Naked, stick-like, forked, spiky, mostly stripped of bark and gleaming silvery in the sunlight. Alder, thou art sick; what ails thee?

Frank at Culligran has an answer. He shows a page in a scientific journal headed ‘Foliage loss in alders’. Apparently it's widespread. Ten per cent of alder trees in England and Wales have been killed (literally decimated) by the most likely culprit, a fungal disease now ominously spreading northwards. The fungus penetrates the root and works its way up the stem. Symptoms are black tarry patches on the trunk and ill-formed foliage turning yellow and dropping early to leave the crown bare. A nasty ailment with an ugly name – Phytophthora.

Surgery does no good. It won't help to chop down a sick tree since the spores, swept along by the current, proceed to attack healthy trees further down river.

Frank says some of his trees at Culligran have been infected. And Tim at Struy says he's noticed a couple of alders on his ground suspiciously thin in the crown. It's scary.