Avondale Forest is a wooded estate in

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by t ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, on the west bank of the

River Avonmore The Avonmore River (), also known as ''Abhainn Dé'' (also spelt ''Abhainn Dea''), flows from Lough Dan in the Wicklow Mountains west of Roundwood. It flows in a generally southerly direction for approximately before joining the Avonbeg at t ...

. It contains the home of

Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1875 to 1891, also acting as Leader of the Home Rule League from 1880 to 1882 and then Leader of the ...

which was built in 1777 by Samuel Hayes and is now the Parnell Museum. The park is rich in wildlife and notable features include the exotic tree trail and a well-developed

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

Habitats and ecology

Avondale is reflective of the wider practices and history of Irish forests. Little native woodland remains,

foreign species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

are planted for their high return and little thought was given to restoring Ireland's native woodlands.

Avondale Forest Park

The forest park lies mainly on the west bank of the Avonmore River covering 214 hectares of land. The ruins of Parnell's old sawmill and Parnell's well are located in the park.

Forest Trails

Centenary Walk, River walk along the banks of the Avonmore River, Exotic Tree Trail, ''Slí na Sláinte'' (path to health walk), Cairn Walk and Pine Trail. There is a weekly

parkrun Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of events for walkers, runners and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 23 countries across six continents. Junior Parkrun (stylised as junior parkrun) ...

every Saturday at 9:30 am.

Avondale House

The mansion was the birthplace in 1846 of

patriot A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism. Patriot may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American Revolution * Patriot m ...

. It was opened as the Charles Stewart Parnell Museum in 1986.RTE
Parnell Museum at Avondale Wicklow 1986
/ref> Avondale Forest Park was redeveloped between late 2019 and 2020. A new cafe restaurant was built along with a visitor centre on 'the great ride' (a long stretch of green space in the middle of Avondale along which horses were ridden in times past), and new subterranean and new tree canopy walkways were also developed.

References

External links

Avondale Forest Park, Map and description Avondale Forest Park, Coillte Visitor DetailsAvondale House and Forest Park
{{coord, 52, 54, 59.09, N, 6, 13, 22, W, display=title Forests and woodlands of the Republic of Ireland Protected areas of County Wicklow