Overview
Tollymore was Northern Ireland’s first state forest park, opened on 2 June 1955, and 630 hectares of it spread across the northern slopes of the Mourne Mountains just outside Newcastle in County Down. The Shimna River runs through the middle of it, and the walk along its banks – past a Gothic barn, a clifftop hermitage and a run of 18th-century stone bridges – is the reason most people come. If you only do one trail, make it the red River Trail.
A landscape shaped by history
The name Tollymore comes from the Irish Tulaigh Mhór, ‘large hill or mound’, after the two prominent hills within the boundary: Slieve Neir and Slieve Snaran, known locally as The Drinns. The land passed through several families before it became a public park. The Magennis clan held it in the 15th century, followed by the Hamilton family in the 17th. James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Clanbrassil, reshaped the estate in the 1700s, commissioning the Gothic follies and ornamental bridges that still define it.
Ownership later passed to the Jocelyn (Roden) family, and the estate was sold off in two parts, from 1930 and again in 1941, when the Ministry of Agriculture completed the purchase. It opened to the public as a forest park in 1955, fourteen years after that final sale.
Walking trails
Four colour-coded trails radiate from the main car park, covering most fitness levels. Maps and markers are at the entrance notice board.
- Blue Trail – Arboretum Path (0.7 km / 25 min): a gentle, wheelchair- and buggy-friendly loop through the historic arboretum. Best for a relaxed stroll among mature trees.
- Red Trail – River Trail (5.2 km / 1.5–2 hrs): follows the Shimna upstream to Parnell’s Bridge, past the Hermitage and a 10-metre cascade, then loops back along the Spinkwee River across the park’s oldest bridge. This is the one to do if you have time for a single walk.
- Black Trail – Mountain Trail (8.8 km / 3–4 hrs): a more demanding route through mixed conifer and broadleaf woodland, crossing the Shimna at the Boundary Bridge with views of the surrounding peaks.
- Black 1 – The Drinns Loop (adds 4.8 km): an optional extension around the two forested hills, climbing to the Curraghard viewpoint for panoramas over Newcastle, Dundrum Bay and the Mournes.
The Ulster Way long-distance path also runs through the park.
Follies and bridges
Tollymore is an open-air museum of 18th- and 19th-century landscape design, much of it shaped by Thomas Wright of Durham, a friend of the Earl of Clanbrassil.
- Barbican Gate and Gothic arches: the grand entrance pairs a Barbican Gate with matching Gothic arches, flanked by an avenue of Himalayan cedars.
- Clanbrassil Barn: built around 1757 to look like a church, this Grade B1-listed structure once held stables and storage; it now houses toilets and an education room.
- The Hermitage: a small stone shelter set into the gorge wall in the 1770s, with a Greek inscription dedicating it to John Montagu, Marquess of Monthermer, and originally a retreat for the ladies of the house while the men fished.
- Stone bridges: sixteen bridges cross the waterways, the Old Bridge (1726) being the oldest; others include Ivy Bridge (1780), Foley’s Bridge (1787) and Parnell Bridge (1842). The Mourne Heritage Trust restored fifteen structures in 2014, among them the Hermitage, Foley’s Bridge, Horn Bridge and the Old Bridge.
- Ancient monuments: the park also holds prehistoric and medieval remains, including the King’s Grave, a megalithic cairn, and the White Fort, a large cashel with 3-metre-thick walls. Flint tools of Late Mesolithic or Early Neolithic date and a Bronze Age arrowhead have been found near the Shimna.
The arboretum
Planting began here around 1752, making the arboretum one of the oldest in Ireland, and the slightly milder coastal microclimate has let a run of exotic species thrive. Look for the towering Himalayan cedars, a cork oak with unusually thick bark, and the remains of a giant redwood struck by lightning. The one to seek out is the original Picea abies ‘Clanbrassiliana’, a slow-growing spruce planted around 1750 and reckoned the oldest tree in any Irish arboretum. Oak from Tollymore was long prized; it is said to have been chosen by Harland & Wolff for interior panelling on the RMS Titanic.
Wildlife
A herd of 120 to 150 wild fallow deer has roamed the woods since the 1970s and is culled each year to keep numbers in check; otters, badgers, foxes and the increasingly rare pine marten work the riverbanks and forest floor. Birdwatchers pick out kingfishers, dippers and great-spotted woodpeckers along the water, and there are feral Mandarin ducks among the river birds.
Red squirrels are the conservation focus. After heavy losses to squirrel pox spread by grey squirrels, the volunteer-led Tollymore Red Squirrel Group set up feeding stations and management programmes, and numbers have recovered since the early 2010s. Early morning or late afternoon gives you the best chance of seeing one.
Filming
Tollymore’s woods and stone bridges have carried several major productions. It doubled as the Haunted Forest in Game of Thrones, including the scene where the Stark children first find their direwolf pups, and it appeared in Dracula Untold. Seasonal guided walks take fans to specific spots, such as Parnell’s Bridge.
Practical information
- Opening: daily from 10:00 until sunset, so closing shifts with the season – earlier in winter, later in high summer.
- Admission and parking: £5 per car, £2.50 per motorcycle, £13 per minibus, £35 per coach; pedestrians and cyclists free. It gets very busy at weekends and on fine days, partly on the strength of its screen fame, so come early.
- Camping: year-round camping and touring pitches, at £23 a night with electricity or £20 without, with toilets, hot showers, fresh water and chemical disposal. Book ahead in summer and the school holidays.
- Accessibility: the Blue Arboretum Path is fully accessible; the other trails are unpaved, with roots, steps and uneven ground.
- Dogs: welcome on all trails but kept under close control near wildlife and the river.
- Getting there: on Bryansford Road, Newcastle, County Down (BT33 0PR), roughly 40 km south of Belfast via the A2 coastal road. Public transport is limited, so most people drive. Nearby Castlewellan Forest Park and Murlough National Nature Reserve make easy add-ons.