Coill an Fhaltaigh – “Wall’s Woods” – is the largest of the sixteen People’s Millennium Forests planted across Ireland to mark the year 2000, and at 90 hectares it’s a proper wood rather than a token copse. It lies about 6 km southwest of Kilkenny off the N76 Callan road, and it took the RDS Native Woodland Conservation award in 2024.
The ground has a longer story than the millennium planting suggests. It was old broadleaf woodland once, part of the Brittas Estate held by the O’Rourke family, whose Brittas Castle stands in ruins nearby. In the late 1940s and 1950s it was cleared and put down to conifers; when those reached size they were felled, and the site was replanted with a native mix – sessile oak, ash, birch, alder, cherry and spindle – one tree, in the scheme’s telling, for every household in the country. Threaded through the young growth is a six-hectare stand of oak more than a century old, the piece of the wood that was never cleared.
The walks
This is a place for an easy hour, not a hike. Two waymarked loops leave the car park, both flat and well surfaced.
- Green Walk (2.2 km, about 1½ hours): a level loop through the heart of the replanted native woodland, genuinely buggy- and wheelchair-friendly.
- Red Walk (3.3 km, about 2 hours): the longer circuit around the core millennium planting, with only about 40 m of gentle climb and plenty of benches.
If you’ve a buggy or limited time, the Green Walk does the job; the Red is the one to take if you want to get in among the older oaks. Trail maps are at the car park and the signage is clear throughout.
Wildlife
The wood sits somewhere between plantation and mature forest, and it’s the better for it. Under the old oaks the spring bluebells come up thick enough to turn the floor solid blue, with wood sorrel, primrose, herb robert, violet and lords-and-ladies among them. It’s good squirrel ground – both red and grey are here, which isn’t a given these days – along with fox, stoat, hare, rabbit, hedgehog, the tiny pygmy shrew and pipistrelle bats at dusk. Listen for treecreeper, goldcrest and the odd long-eared owl among the commoner songbirds, and watch for a sparrowhawk working the rides. The site has been part of a long-term ecological monitoring programme since 2003, tracking how these restored woods mature.
Through the year
- Spring: the bluebells under the oak, and fresh leaf on the young canopy – the best few weeks to come.
- Summer: long evenings make the Red Walk an easy after-work outing, with butterflies along the sunnier rides.
- Autumn: leaf colour, and fungi pushing up through the damp litter.
- Winter: the quietest season, when bare branches make the birds easier to see and frost picks out animal tracks on the paths.
Practical information
Opening hours follow the daylight: 9am–7pm from April to October, 9am–5pm from November to March. Entry and parking are free. There’s a car park and a picnic area at the entrance, but no café, shop or toilets, so bring water and a rain jacket – the nearest facilities are back in Kilkenny.
By car it’s straightforward: head southwest from Kilkenny on the N76 and follow the signs after the turn-off, about 6 km in all. Public transport is thin on the ground, so this is really a place to drive to. Keep dogs under control and stay on the marked paths to protect the young trees and the understorey.
Nearby
The wood pairs well with the rest of the county. North lies the Castlecomer plateau, with heathland walks, waterfalls and the Discovery Park; back in the city the 13th-century Black Abbey has a quiet cloister garden, and Jerpoint Abbey on the Nore is worth the trip for its carved cloister figures alone. On Sundays, one of Ireland’s largest car-boot sales runs at the nearby Castleinch Venue.
For the wood at its best, though, come in late April or early May, when the bluebells are out under the century-old oaks – that’s the walk worth planning around.