Glengarriff Forest is an area of woodland near

Glengarriff Glengarriff () is a village of approximately 140 people on the N71 national secondary road in the Beara Peninsula of County Cork, Ireland. Known internationally as a tourism venue, it has a number of natural attractions. It sits at the norther ...

West Cork West Cork ( ga, Iarthar Chorcaí) is a tourist region and municipal district in County Cork, Ireland. As a municipal district, West Cork falls within the administrative area of Cork County Council, and includes the towns of Bantry, Castletownbe ...

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 ...

. Most of the woodland is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

in public ownership which is sometimes referred to as Glengarriff "forest park" or " state forest". Glengarriff Forest is one of the best examples in the country of

oceanic Oceanic may refer to: *Of or relating to the ocean *Of or relating to Oceania **Oceanic climate **Oceanic languages **Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)" Places * Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...

sessile oak ''Quercus petraea'', commonly known as the sessile oak, Cornish oak, Irish Oak or durmast oak, is a species of oak tree native to most of Europe and into Anatolia and Iran. The sessile oak is the national tree of Ireland, and an unofficial embl ...

woodland. It is part of the much larger Glengarriff Harbour & Woodlands Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

History

In the eighteenth century the woods were acquired by the White family for whom the title

Earl of Bantry Earl of Bantry, of Bantry in the County of Cork, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1816 for Richard White, 1st Viscount Bantry, who had helped repelling the French invasion at Bantry Bay in 1797. He had already been crea ...

was created. The Earls of Bantry were responsible for planting some of the trees which are alive in the twenty-first century. In 1955, ownership of 380ha of the woods passed to the state which used them for commercial forestry purposes. Extensive planting of conifers occurred, and many of the oldest oak trees were felled or ring-barked. In the 1970s, the ecological value of the remaining areas of oak was recognised and in 1991 a Nature Reserve was designated. Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve covers some 300ha and is managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service for conservation and amenity. Some conifers have been replaced with oak trees.

Flora and fauna

Sika deer have been recorded, but regeneration of the forest suffers less from grazing than the similar woods at Killarney where there is a larger deer population. The mild climate favours Hiberno-Lusitanian species, such as the

Kerry slug The Kerry slug or Kerry spotted slug (''Geomalacus maculosus'') is a species of terrestrial, pulmonate, gastropod mollusc. It is a medium-to-large sized, air-breathing land slug in the family of roundback slugs, Arionidae. Adult Kerry slu ...

, which are to be found in south-west Ireland and the Iberian peninsula. The Kerry slug thrives in the forest's oak trees, and is a "selection feature" of the Special Area of Conservation. Another example of a Lusitanian species to be found in the forest is the Strawberry Tree (''

Arbutus unedo ''Arbutus unedo'' is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the family Ericaceae, native to the Mediterranean region and western Europe. The tree is well known for its fruits, which bear some resemblance to the strawberry — hence the common name ...

'').Glengarriff Woods Nature Reserve

References

External links

Glengarriff Nature Reserve Website
{{coord, 51, 45, 26, N, 9, 33, 32, W, display=title Forests and woodlands of the Republic of Ireland Tourist attractions in County Cork Nature reserves in the Republic of Ireland Protected areas established in 1991 1991 establishments in Ireland