Mourne Park: Ancient woodland opens to the public after 500 years

An ancient forest near Kilkeel, in County Down, opens to the public on Monday for the first time in 500 years.

Mourne Park was bought by the Woodland Trust last year.

It covers 156 hectares, which includes 73 hectares of incredibly rare ancient woodland.

Ancient woodlands are those that have existed continuously since 1600 or earlier and make up just 0.04% of Northern Ireland's land cover.

"This is our bread and butter, to restore and protect ancient woodlands," said Woodland Trust estate and project manager Dave Scott.

He added that some of the trees were needing "a bit of TLC".

The Woodland Trust has been working to make the area accessible to the public

"Some of these trees have been around for 250 years and they just make up this wonderful place in terms of areas with oak woodland and beech woodland.

"We've got some magnificent Scots Pine here as well, and of course the Whitewater River.

"The walks around here will introduce you to all these different habitats."

The park was also home to some invasive species, like rhododendron and laurel, which the trust has been removing from the site since it began working with the previous owners three years ago.

It was taking up more than 20 hectares of the woodland.

Mr Scott said: "What that does is it stops the light getting to the forest floor and it just chokes the woodland, so we just got in in time."

Work has been done to allow flora on the forest floor to thrive

The areas that have been cleared now allow forest floor plants like wood anemone, foxgloves and bluebells to grow.

The trust has restored walking paths around the woodland, which will be opened up to the public for free.

And the restoration work has thrown up a few surprises for Mr Scott and his team.

"We uncovered trees that you've physically been unable to see for about 30 years and new kind of carvings on them from Second World War soldiers and historical features that we're uncovering," he said.

"So it is an ever-changing place and one thing that you walk away with is just how beautiful it is.

"Without this restoration work, eventually this woodland would slowly die."

The restoration of the woodland threw up some surprises

There are long-term plans to expand the park by fundraising to buy another 46 hectares adjacent to it.

That will allow the trust to create a 90,000 tree "buffer zone", to protect and strengthen the ancient woodland for years to come.