Wat's Wood is a forest located near Coldmoat and Standfast in the Reach.
Layout
Much of Wat's Wood was made up of oaks and pines.[1] The Chequy Water passes through part of Wat's Wood, though the Coldmoat side was cleared for pasture. Thorny vines, nettles, and tangles of briarwhite and young willow were found along the streambed.[1]
Wildlife in the forest have included aurochs, boar, red deer, elk, fireflies, flies, rabbits, and tree cats.[1]
The west way, which runs from Standfast to Coldmoat, passes through the wood.[1]
History
Wat's Wood once extended all the way to Coldmoat, and aurochs and great elk lived in the wood before Aegon's Conquest. For long only the Osgreys and royalty were allowed to hunt red deer in Wat's Wood.[1]
For his service in the First Blackfyre Rebellion, Lord Wyman Webber was granted the right to take red deer, boar, and rabbits in Wat's Wood and to cut twenty trees from the wood each year. According to Ser Eustace Osgrey, much of the forest was harvested by the Webbers to make way for grazing land and fields for their cows, sheep, and horses, however.[1]
During the reign of King Aerys I Targaryen, Ser Eustace enlisted the aid of Ser Duncan the Tall and Ser Bennis of the Brown Shield during his feud with Lady Rohanne Webber. While they were traveling through Wat's Wood, Eustace was surprised to find the carcass of a tree cat in the forest. Duncan saw blinking lantern bugs in the night, and he was bothered by biting flies.[1] When much of Wat's Wood burned, Septon Sefton attributed it to the drought afflicting much of the Seven Kingdoms. Eustace, however, accused Rohanne of burning it by driving winds through witchcraft.[1]
Quotes
The greenery looked inviting from afar, and filled Dunk's head with thoughts of shady glens and chuckling brooks, but when they reached the trees they found them thin and scraggly, with drooping limbs. Some of the great oaks were shedding leaves, and half the pines had turned as brown as Ser Bennis, with rings of dead needles girdling their trunks.[1]
—thoughts of Duncan the Tall
Sefton: Ser Eustace, there are fires in the kingswood too, and even in the rainwood. The drought has turned all our woods to kindling.
Rohanne: Look at my fields, Osgrey. How dry they are. I would have been a fool to set a fire. Had the wind changed direction, the flames might well have leapt the stream, and burned out half my crops.
Eustace: Might have? It was my woods that burned, and you that burned them. Most like you cast some witch's spell to drive the wind, just as you used your dark arts to slay your husbands and your brothers![1]
Behind the Scenes
While in the published version of The Sworn Sword, the cause of the fire in Wat's Wood remains unexplained, possibly being accidental, in a draft of the novella, Rohanne Webber suggests that Ser Lucas Inchfield may be responsible.[2]