CALENDARS sent to customers of a Lake District holiday park this year came with much more than 365 days.

The acorn which accompanied their seasonal gift, they were promised, would provide more than a century of pleasure - and a lifetime of carbon-neutral visits to Cumbria.

Hundreds of acorns were gathered from oak trees at Skelwith Fold Caravan Park in Ambleside, and sent with its annual calendar featuring photographs taken by guests.

But the ‘park in a pot’ was meant as more than just a reminder of holidays spent enjoying Skelwith’s 130 acres of historic woodland, said owner Henry Wild.

His note to customers pointed out that trees are invaluable allies in fighting the damaging impact of carbon emissions - and that during its lifetime, an oak tree will remove up to eight tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

That, said Henry, equated to around 6,500 miles of carbon emissions from an average car. So every acorn planted by a customer and surviving to maturity could mean all that person’s journeys to Skelwith Fold were “carbon neutral”, he said.

Praised by botanist David Bellamy for its raft of conservation initiatives over the years, Skelwith Fold has many full-grown oak trees in its grounds, producing countless acorns each year.

But it is not just the park’s red squirrels, recently re-colonised by Skelwith, which benefit from the oak and its annual harvest of their favourite diet.

According to Henry, the oak is supreme in the variety of wildlife it supports, and is home to many small mammals, mosses, lichens, and more than 350 varieties of insects which are a food source for birds.

“We thought guests would be rather taken with the notion of growing their own park at home, and oaks can make lovely window sill plants for a few years before being planted out,” he said.

“But for every acorn that does reach maturity as a tree, it’s a happy thought that the person who planted it will be able to drive to Skelwith Fold in neutral in the future!”