GRANGE ACADEMY CHINESE MOONGATE

East Ayrshire Woodlands were approached in early 2010 about the possibility of designing,
creating and installing a unique feature in the school's wildlife garden, to take the form of a
Chinese 'moongate', a large circular structure to be situated over a path and allow people to
walk through it.

Try as we might, we couldn't find any example of a moongate ever being made out of willow
before, more usually wood or stone, so this was seen as a bit of a challenge!

We approached the construction in a similar way to constructing willow wreath bases, but
around very sturdy ash poles, driven into the ground in a perfect circle.

While one of the two huge hoops was woven around the outside of the poles, the upper hoop
was woven in and out of the uprights in a basketmaking / hurdle making fashion.

We then tightly lashed everything together and added smaller woven circles all the way around,
between the two circles.

Initial Installation took place on Thursday 11th March, with some additional work to follow.

    
Moongate with 6 months new growth.