High Hay

In T.A. 2418, Rosalythe and Permiend Brandybuck brought seedlings and seeds for this hedgewall back from the Wild, from beyond Weathertop. They got them from still-intact sections of the ancient Hagavorl, the Hedge-wall that had once protected Cardolan from incursions of wargs in the days of the conflict with Angmar.The Brandybucks calculated, rightly, as it turned out, that the properties bred into this type of hawthorne bush by the ancients would make the High Hay relatively secure against the powers of the Old Forest. The hedge ran dense and unbroken from the Buckland Gate at its north end, to Haysend at the south. The only passage through it was provided by the Hay Gate, about a third of the way down its length. The gate was actually a brick-walled tunnel dug underneath the hedge, large enough for carts and ponies to pass through, opening into a treeless, rock-bottomed hollow a hundred yards across. A sturdy iron gate guarded the tunnel. Keys for the gate were held by various members of the Brandybuck family, although they were seldom used in Frodo's time. Merry Brandybuck, passing through the gate in order to escape the Black Riders, simply threw a latch to pass through. The latch, of course, could only be opened from the Buckland side.