After Santa Cruz: Ballyarr Wood

Wednesday afternoon we went grocery shopping in Letterkenny. Since that's a 30-minute drive all by itself, I like to go somewhere else on the way home.

We stopped at Ballyarr Wood.

Ballyarr Wood is predominantly old oak woodland. A number of other habitats including wet woodland, scrub wet heath and wet grassland also occur. The oak woodland has a well developed structure, with a high canopy of well grown oaks, a good understory of holly and hazel and rich ground flora. Natural regeneration is occurring. The other habitats, particularly the open areas of heath and wet grassland, enhance the diversity, value and character of the woodland. (source)

I saw "Ballyarr Wood Nature Reserve" on a map, but it took us a long time to find in real life. There's no signage from the road, and no parking, just a wide spot in the road. No, not really. The road doesn't widen. If you find a farm gate and this path, that's it.

We walk here often as it is rare to find a natural woodland in Donegal. As you grow to love a place, to learn the unique ways you love it. We have our favorite trees here, but I can't find photos of them. Maybe I'll post them later.

There are old walls, and a pile of rocks on a hill, magical and attractive. The mushrooms in the first photo at the top of the page are growing here. They marked this placee as a "fort" on old maps.

This is what the archeologists say:

Class: Ringfort - cashel Townland: BALLYARR
Description: Internal diam. 24m. A circular area formerly enclosed by a stone wall 2m wide comprised of two lines of large stones filled in with smaller stones. The NW half of the wall survives in a collapsed state up to .5m in height. The other half has been removed, but can be traced still. The site is overgrown but is apparently even, sloping gently N to S. It is situated on a spur of rough, wooded land sloping steeply N, E and W and gently to the S.

The best time to visit Ballyarr Wood is autumn, because mushrooms.