Doon is a Coillte forest on the shore of Doon Lough, 3.5km north-west of Broadford in east County Clare – a quiet spot for a flat lakeside walk, a picnic or a few hours’ pike fishing, well off the Cliffs-of-Moher tourist trail. Doon Wood was actually one of the noted sights of 19th-century Clare; today it’s a working forest with a lay-by car park, a picnic site and tracks along the water, and nothing in the way of crowds. Set your expectations to ‘pleasant local amenity’, not ‘destination’, and you’ll enjoy it.
The walks
The tracks are forest roads, flat and firm, branching from the car park – good for a buggy or a dog. The catch is that none of it is waymarked, so it’s easy to wander further than you meant to; download the Coillte map or have a GPS app open before you set off. There’s a lakeshore picnic site, and the views over the water to the low hills are the reward rather than any single big set-piece. Dogs should be on a lead near the grazing boundaries and in nesting season.
The fort that isn’t there
The name An Dún means ‘the fort’, after an ancient fort on the site, and a later tower house here was called Doon Mulvihill. Don’t come expecting a castle, though: the tower house was demolished in the 18th century and its stone carted off to build Doon House, which has itself since been demolished. So ‘the fort’ survives as a place name and very little else – a good example of how thoroughly a building can vanish.
The lake has held on to older things. In 1986 three submerged dugout canoes, reckoned to be over 2,000 years old, were found on the northern side of Doon Lough. The lake and its bog are protected as Doon Lough Bog (NHA 000337), designated in 2005 for the raised bog around it – a habitat that has become genuinely rare across the EU.
Fishing
Doon Lake – about 120 acres – is the main draw for anglers, a noted pike fishery that also gives good bags of roach and hybrids; coarse anglers fishing an evening here have reported 30–50lb nets. The honest practical note: there’s bank fishing, but for the best of it you really need a boat, which can be arranged locally (Niall O’Donnell at Lake View House B&B is the usual contact). Bring a valid coarse fishing permit and check current regulations before you travel.
Getting there and nearby
The car park is a lay-by signed left off the R466 Broadford–Tulla road. There are no toilets, shop or staff on site, so bring what you need. Broadford, the nearest village (Local Link route 318 connects it to Ennis and Limerick), is a couple of minutes away for anything else.
For more walking, the East Clare Way long-distance route passes just west of the lake, and the ruin of Teerovannan Castle, a 15th-century McNamara tower house, stands nearby. The wider East Clare lakelands and the southern shore of Lough Derg are within easy reach for a longer day.