Welcome to Foran’s Wood

Welcome to Foran’s Wood at Lullymore – a diverse mineral and bog woodland habitat. The wood is named after the last family who lived and farmed the land where the Park is now located. Much of the wood has remained as it is today for at least a couple of hundred years. Indeed our historic local poet, Matthew Farrell may well have planted some of the trees you’ll see on the trail in the 1820’s as he states in his poem “Lullymore”:

“Your Grandsire purchas’d his good will,
And paid both women, boys, and men,
What was call’d, tip top wages then,
To weed, and drain, and nurse young trees,
And plant out groves and shrubberies.

The trees are stark of foliage bare,
And stand mast high up in the air,
I us’d to water, and to weed,
In beds, ere they had struck from seed”

Taken from poem “Lullymore” circa 1860 by Matthew Farrell.

The bog land part of the woods (where you will feel the ground get bouncier as you enter) is full of silver birch, Froghan (wild blueberry) and heather. Insect life is abundant here in the Summer. Look out for the dragonflies, butterflies and of course our honey bees. On the mineral rich part of the woodland keep an eye out for old Beech trees, Mountain Ash and huge Holly trees. You may also get a glimpse of a pair of red squirrels which recently moved in. Others to find include frogs, newts and a huge variety of bird life.

These two habitats host a vast variety of plant and animal life.

Badgers West Plantation

Pine Martens in West Plantation