Tomnafinnoge Woods ''(Irish: Coillte Tom na Feannóige')'' is the last surviving fragment of the great Oak Woods of

Tinahely Tinahely () is a village in County Wicklow in Ireland. It is a market town in the valley of the River Derry, a tributary of the River Slaney. Location and access It is located on the R747 road which links the west Wicklow town of Baltingla ...

, which once clothed the hills and valleys of south

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has ...

, Ireland. As early as 1444 these woods supplied timber for the construction of

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

, and later for

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Saint Patrick's Cathedral ( ir, Ard-Eaglais Naomh Pádraig) in Dublin, Ireland, founded in 1191 as a Roman Catholic cathedral, is currently the national cathedral of the Church of Ireland. Christ Church Cathedral, also a Church of Ireland ca ...

and

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. In 1634, the woods were estimated to cover 'more than many thousand acres', but from then on they were heavily exploited especially for shipbuilding. Some sources say that it was oak from these woods that was originally used to make the old Irish walking sticks, commonly called "Shillelaghs", however this is not true. There is no actual connection between the walking sticks with the village or forest of Shillelagh (Irish: Síol Éalaigh, meaning "descendants of Éalach") in County Wicklow, other than the fact that both the original Irish names have ended up with the same Anglicized pronunciation. Today the woods are owned and protected by the Irish State. They are included in the Slaney River Valley candidate

Special Area of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

. A tributary of the Slaney, the

River Derry The River Derry () is a large river in the southeast of Leinster, Ireland, a tributary of the Slaney. It rises just south of Hacketstown, County Carlow, Ireland. It flows southeast to Tinahely, being accompanied by the R747 regional ro ...

flows through the woods. This is one of the best places in Ireland to see the

great spotted woodpecker The great spotted woodpecker (''Dendrocopos major'') is a medium-sized woodpecker with pied black and white plumage and a red patch on the lower belly. Males and young birds also have red markings on the neck or head. This species is found acros ...

, which has recently recolonised the country.

Things to do

Tomnafinnoge has several very popular woodland walks, one of the newest walks which opened in 2003 travels along the line of the former railway. It leads from Tomnafinnoge Woods to the nearby town of

References

{{coord missing, County Wicklow Forests and woodlands of the Republic of Ireland Tourist attractions in County Wicklow Protected areas of County Wicklow