If you only have an hour
Do the Lake Walk. It’s 0.8km, flat, and the only trail here a wheelchair or buggy can manage the whole way round. It loops the lily-covered lake, passes the castle ruins and takes in the 9/11 memorial with almost no effort. The longer Aylmer Walk and the orienteering courses are for a half-day and drier ground.
Donadea covers 243 hectares of the former Aylmer estate in north-west County Kildare, half an hour off the M4. Coillte has run it as a public forest park since 1981, and it’s one of the busiest outdoor spots in the county, which is the one thing worth planning around (parking, below).
The castle and the church
The Aylmer family took the estate in 1558. Gerald Aylmer began a defensive tower in 1581 and it wasn’t finished until 1624; that keep is the oldest surviving part of Donadea Castle. Two years on, in 1626, the family rebuilt the medieval St Peter’s Church nearby. It hasn’t held services in a long time, but the stonework and the old gravestones around it are clearly visible from several of the paths.
The last Aylmer to live here, Caroline, died in 1935, and the Irish Land Commission took the lands in 1936. Coillte turned the demesne into a forest park in 1981, keeping the historic buildings and adding the broadleaf and conifer plantations that make up most of the wood today. The walled garden beside the castle has been replanted to something close to its estate layout, with benches and picnic tables; it’s the most sheltered corner of the park on a windy day.
The lake
A shallow ornamental lake sits at the centre of the wood. It draws dabchicks, coots, waterhens and mallard, and by mid-summer the surface is a spread of white water lilies. A short boardwalk gives the best of the views and is flat enough for wheelchairs and buggies.
The 9/11 memorial
Along the Aylmer Walk stands a scaled limestone replica of the Twin Towers. It honours Sean Tallon, a New York firefighter killed in the September 2001 attacks whose family had emigrated from Donadea. It’s Ireland’s only woodland memorial to that day, and it catches most people off guard on an otherwise ordinary forest path.
Walking, orienteering and Zipit
Three waymarked loops run from the car park:
- Lake Walk – 0.8km, about 30 minutes, flat and fully accessible.
- Nature Trail – 1.6km, about an hour, through estate remnants and native woodland.
- Aylmer Walk – 5.7km, about 1.5 hours, a Slí na Sláinte route through broadleaf woodland; the 9/11 memorial is on it.
Three permanent orienteering courses (1.8km, 3.4km and 4.6km) are marked through the trees; download the maps from the Coillte website before you come. More recently, Zipit Donadea has opened inside the park: a €1.5 million high-ropes and zip-line course aimed at families and groups who want something more active than a walk.
Getting there and parking
By car, the park is 8km south of Kilcock and 13km north of Naas on the R407, signposted from the M4. The car park holds 460 spaces and still fills on fine summer weekends, so arrive before 10am or after 3pm. The €5 daily fee is contactless only now, with no coin option, so bring a card or your phone. There’s no direct bus; the nearest train is Maynooth, roughly 15 minutes away by taxi. For satnav, the postcode is W91 VK59.
Café, toilets and what to bring
There’s a café by the lake, open through the year, but its hours aren’t officially posted, so check locally if you’re counting on it, because the park’s only toilets are inside and keep to café hours. Bring a waterproof whatever the forecast: the canopy takes the edge off the wind, and off the sun too, so a light jacket earns its place even in July.
Nearby
Donadea sits well on a wider north-Kildare day out. Within a short drive are the village of Clane, the Bog of Allen and its bog trails, and, a little further, Carton House and the Irish National Stud.
Have the contactless card out before you reach the barrier. Since the switch to cashless there’s no coin slot and no attendant to sort you out if you’re caught short.