A woodland with a backstory
Portlick is younger than it looks. The Ordnance Survey maps of 1837–38 show no forest here at all; the woodland has spread over the shore since about 1900. In 2000 it was replanted as one of the 16 People’s Millennium Forests, a national scheme that put 1.2 million native trees in the ground to mark the millennium, funded by the National Millennium Committee, AIB and the Forest Service. The land belongs to Westmeath County Council and Coillte manages the site.
What grows here is mostly native hazel and ash, with smaller numbers of oak, whitebeam, holly, alder, willow, birch and hawthorn. The odd stand of beech, sycamore, Sitka spruce and Douglas fir is a leftover from the Smyth family, who owned the estate from the early 1700s and planted exotics for effect. In spring the floor fills with bluebell, primrose, wood sorrel, violet and the hooded spikes of lords and ladies.
Getting there
The forest sits on the eastern shore of Lough Ree, about 5km north-west of Glasson and 8km north of Athlone. From Glasson, follow the local roads towards the lake and watch for the Coillte car park at Whinning; it’s signposted but easy to sail past. There’s no public transport to the gate, so you’ll need a car.
Coming from the town, Portlick makes a natural pairing with a morning at Athlone Castle or a wet-weather afternoon indoors before the trees dry out.
The walk
The main waymarked loop is about 5km, with shorter cut-throughs if you have small legs in tow or a tighter window. It runs from the woodland into the trees and out along the Whinning peninsula, where gaps open onto Lough Ree. The lake views are the reason to come; they arrive in glimpses rather than one grand reveal, so keep going when the path seems to be all hazel and no water. A separate track loops the outside of the wood and is set aside for horse-riders.
Here’s the honest part. The ground near the shore is low and holds water, and long stretches turn to churned mud after rain and flood outright in winter. Trainers will not survive it. Bring wellies or proper boots, and accept that in a wet spell parts of the lower trail may be off-limits. On a dry summer morning it’s an easy, flat hour or so; in February it can be a slog.
Portlick Castle and Whinning House
Two buildings sit inside the site. Portlick Castle is a medieval tower house built by the Dillons, who held the estate for centuries, and it is still lived in today, so it’s a look from the path rather than a visit. Deeper in stand the ruins of Whinning House. The name Portlick itself points at the bedrock underfoot: it means roughly ‘part of the flagstone surface’, a nod to the limestone the whole shore is built on.
Practical notes
Entry is free and the forest is open every day of the year. There’s a car park and, next to it, a toilet block maintained by Westmeath County Council, which is more than many Coillte sites can claim. The woodland forms part of the proposed Lough Ree Special Area of Conservation, so keep dogs under control and take your litter home. Across the water, Kiltoom marks the quieter Roscommon side of the same lake if you want to see Lough Ree from the other bank.
Go on a dry morning after a settled few days, park at Whinning, and do the full loop clockwise so the best of the lake views land in the second half rather than the first.