Spotlight ✨ Sunday ✨ // Castlelough Woods

The first time I remember ever going to Castlelough was when I was 15/16 and my friends and I were in the midst of a camping craze. And it wasn't that we were all Irish-Bear-Gryll types; living for the outdoors with a love for sleeping in tiny tents and eating questionable-sausages cooked on a disposable barbeque. We did it as a way to hang out, away from the prying eyes of parents, especially when someone produced a sneaky bottle (or bottles) of beer and we sat there around a makeshift fire pit, feeling very much like adults. 

When I returned - seven years later - it was a trip down memory lane. Although there has been a major change since a playground was constructed in 2015, it was still easy to spot where we used to pitch our tents for the night. We would line our tents around the entrance of a mini woods; a place we would dare not enter once it got dark because, obviously, that's where the axe murderers were hanging out. In daylight, the miniature walk is a delight with parts dipping into the Castlelough lake. 

Roughly 1km from Castlelough is Castlelough Woods. Those travelling by car beware the awful road conditions leading to the entrance of the woods. Honestly there are more potholes than road and you would be better off parking in Castlelough and walking the km than attempting to drive down it. Trust.me. 

The Castlelough Woods is massive so make sure you keep track of what direction you're heading and expect to come across a lot of cool stuff; from beautiful bluebells (which you'll see in bloom from Spring-Summer) impressive man-made forts and even some skulls. 

Each time you visit Castlelough and the Woods it feels like a new place just because there's always some new part to see. Ideally, doing the trip just before sunrise would show the forest in it's true entirety; especially now coming to the end of Autumn and the vibrancy of the forest bed. That's if you can manage to drag yourself out of the bed on the increasingly colder mornings. I promise it's worth it though!

Photo Courtesy of Tom McKeogh

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Until next time...

Aimee♥