Castlemorris Wood

Castlemorris Wood Walk
Two looped walks that start and finish at the Grand Gates which lies west of the villages of Newmarket and Hugginstown and east of the village of Kilmaganny in south Kilkenny.

	Holly Loop	Fern Loop	Pheasant Loop
Trail Length:	6 Km	3 Km	7 Km
Duration:	1.5 Hours	1 Hour	2 Hours 30 min
Difficulty:	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate/Hard
Footwear:	Walking Boots	Walking Boots	Walking Boots
Terrain:	Forest track, Grasslands  Forest track,	Some wet ground, Minor Roads 1.3Km Grasslands	Forest road, grasslands, Minor Roads

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Holly Loop:
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Fern Loop:
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Pheasant Loop:
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Parking: Parking available opposite the Grand Gates of Castlemorris Estate
Caution:  •This is a working forest.  •The loops will be closed for thirty days of the year as the forest houses pheasants which are released during the shooting season. Notification of the closures will be placed on the map information board. •You will come across ruins of old buildings as you take this walk. Please do not interfere with these ruins.  •Not suitable for buggies due to wet ground.  •Dogs must be kept on leads at all times.

Holly Loop Map

Fern Loop Map

Pheasant Loop Map

Along the Trail:
Follow the pathway of the forest which leads you to two colour coded looped walks (a red and a green) offering an excellent display of the various flora and fauna changing with each season. This developing coniferous woodland also offers samples of broadleaf trees including oak, beech, birch, larch and ash.
The trail starts/finishes at the Grand Gates entrance to Castlemorris Wood, Aghaviller, Newmarket, Co.Kilkenny

Entering through the Grand gates of Castlemorris, you will pass the Gate Lodge on the right hand side. Climb over the stile on the left hand side and walk straight along path for both the red and green loop. Continue walking for approx 15 mins, until you come to an open space where there is a picnic table. Old out buildings are visible at the back entrance to what was Castlemorris house Courtyard.

At this point the loops diverge. Turn right for the Red loop and left for Green loop.

Red loop
This trail continues right around the estate with views of the old out buildings. The Trail does not include passing through the old courtyard outbuildings. Walk along a narrow path at the side of the forest, at the end of this path, turn right. Continue to follow the signs until you exit the forest onto a minor public road. Turn left and continue to walk down the hill. Enter back into forest at the end of the hill by turning left. Follow the signs to the area where you join with green route and follow the trail back to the Grand gates.

Green Loop
Starting the trail from the Gate Lodge, follow the signs to a common area where the two loops will diverge. Turn left at the picnic table. Continue to the next junction and turn left again. Follow the signs through the forest path. You will join back with the red route. Continue walking back towards the Gate Lodge, taking the two sign posted left turns. Your walk will end at the Grand Gates.

Castlemorris
Castlemorris Estate (also known as Castle Morres). Harvey Morres received a grant of land here in the late 17th century. Francis Morres, the first Viscount Mountmorris and Harvey’s eldest son commissioned Castle Morres and as one of the largest stately homes in the country and it was built in approx 1751. Francis Blunden who also designed such notable houses as Bessborough House and Woodstock House in Co Kilkenny, designed the house. Based in the parish of Aghaviller, the Castlemorris Estate was previously known as “Diore Lia” – a grey wood. Formerly home to the Morres and De Montmorency families, the family vault can still be seen in the local church yard. The church yard also contains the remains of an ancient round tower. Built to protect the occupants and valuables of monastic settlements from Viking raids, these towers dot the Nore valley.

In 1924 the house was sold to the Land Commission. In the early 1930’s it was unroofed and a demolition sale took place. Many parts of the house are to be found in houses around the country. The house was finally demolished in 1978. The grounds now merge with other Coillte woods totalling approximately 2000 acres.

Flora
With the changing of the season so too the variety of flora change – see which of the following you can spot.
Bramble, fern, bracken, great woodrush, honeysuckle, holly, ivy, moss, bilberry, gorse, bluebell, cherry laurel, wood sedge, speedwell, foxglove, willow herb and raspberry.

Fauna
The forest is the chosen habitat of a number of wildlife including the fox, badger, hare, rabbit, woodmouse, brown rat, grey squirrel, hedgehog and birds including the woodpidgeon, crow, magpie, blackbird, thrush, coal tit, willow warbler, wren, robin and goldcrest.

Tree Species
The forest at Castlemorris contain broadleaf species including beech, oak, hazel, ash, sycamore, Spanish chestnut, birch, elm, poplar, rowan and hazel. Conifers include the Sitka and Norway spruce, Japanese and European Larch, Scots pine and lodgepole pine, Douglas and silver fir, western hemlock, Lawson cypress.