Go Walk: Derrycassin Wood, Co Longford

The shores of the many lakes in the midlands are dotted with areas of woodland which make for pleasant walks for those not visiting for the boating and fishing; although I did see one walk described as “ideal for those with a boat as they can row from one patch of woodland to the next”. As we say in Cork, “How bad is that?” But Derrycassin Wood has a walk sufficient unto itself. Like many of these patches of woodlands, it is the site of an Anglo-Irish mansion, in this case Derrycassin House built by the Dopping Hempenstal family in 1760. As in many other cases, the house was razed and the site, including surrounding ancient woodland, was over-planted with conifers. But don’t let me put you off; there is much to be enjoyed at Derrycassin.

My main reason for going there was that it gave me an opportunity to get a close look at an esker. There are examples on the nature trail which runs off to the left just after entering the woods. Eskers are low-lying ridges of sand, gravel and rock. They are the beds of melt-water streams that flowed under melting ice sheets and when the ice had finally gone they were left as sinuous ridges running across the country. The international term esker comes from the Irish 'Eiscir Riada', the line of eskers which run across the midlands from Dublin to Galway and created a vital route way across the midland bogs. It was also a political dividing line created after the Battle of Maynooth in 123 AD, when Ireland was divided into two halves, Leath Cuinn (Conn's Half) to the north and Leath Mogha (Mogha's Half) to the south.

While they can be seen in many places, it was nice to examine them in this peaceful woodland setting.

Carrying on past the eskers, the path passes through a Beech Grove to a viewing point looking out over Lough Gamhna. From there I followed the path close to the lake with the evening sun creating a dramatic dark ornamentation of the trunks and branches of the alder and willows which grow along the shore.

When the path swings around to head back to the entrance, look out for the path on your left which brings you past the remains of the walled garden and close to the site of the house where you will find yew, beech, cedar, western hemlock and rhododendron.

As I walked past the conifers on the last part of the walk, I mused on the many places I have come across where commercial afforestation had destroyed ancient woodland.

I was minded of the late English naturalist Oliver Rackham, who censured not only the British Forestry Commission but also archaeologists for their failure to recognise the importance of trees as the last living inhabitants of ancient settlements.