A
New Year’s Walk in the Park
After all the festivities celebrating
Yuletide followed by the jollity of marking the end of the year, what better way
to start January than a healthy gulp of clean fresh air. It’s hard to think of a more pleasant
place to refresh the lungs than the local park.
Location
location location
How lucky are the citizens of southern
County Antrim to have a back garden like Lagan Valley Regional Park. I am fortunate to live within walking
distance of one of the park’s principal parts, Belvoir Forest.
Although it is the only part of the UK
to have no National Parks, Northern Ireland has this one Regional Park. At its closest point, it is only a couple of
miles from the centre of Belfast. Few other cities can claim to have such
an impressive area of open space – 4,200 acres.
It extends for 11 miles from its inner suburbs to beyond Belfast’s city
boundaries[1]
all the way to Lisburn.
In times of financial austerity, it’s
reassuring to remind ourselves that the best things we have are free.
Lagan Valley has all we need to make us happy.
As a public park, it is the perfect
place for running, cycling, walking, canoeing, as well as archaeological
discovery, social, cultural and family events.
The Park has attracted over a million visitors in each of the last three
years (more than the Giants Causeway and Titanic Belfast).[2]
It has a rich variety of parklands ranging
from dense woodlands to manicured gardens and estates with ancient specimen
trees and it supports a wide variety of wildlife.
Lagan Valley has enormous historic interest,
providing a microcosm of the wider region’s development.
No wonder that it was recognised with the
designation as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965 and as a Regional
Park in 1967.
Town planners sagely refer to open
spaces as the city’s heart and lungs. On
this basis, the rational conclusion is that Belfast must be a very healthy city
– even if one or two parts of its anatomy are not necessarily in such fine
fettle.
Irish Oak
Belvoir Forest is home to the oldest recorded oak trees in Ireland. Many are over 300 years old. The oldest specimen (1642) pre-dates the Battle of the Boyne by a half-century. According to Dr Ben Simon, this
“is the oldest date so far found for any tree in a woodland in Ireland.”[3]
He adds that the largest of these veteran oaks, known affectionately as Granddad,
“is a massive squat hollow tree with a circumference of 8.8 metres just above ground level making it one of the largest oaks in Ireland.”
“is the oldest date so far found for any tree in a woodland in Ireland.”[3]
He adds that the largest of these veteran oaks, known affectionately as Granddad,
“is a massive squat hollow tree with a circumference of 8.8 metres just above ground level making it one of the largest oaks in Ireland.”
Researchers from Queens University Belfast have carried out research to
establish such facts in a project entitled “Quercus” (Latin for oak). I like the subtlety of using Latin, whose
first two letters also happen to be the university’s initials.
Our Irish oak tree has additional
significance. It is emblematic and used
in many place-names.
It is the symbol of County Londonderry, as a vast amount was covered in oak forests. The county’s name derives from the Irish Doire, meaning oak.
It is the symbol of County Londonderry, as a vast amount was covered in oak forests. The county’s name derives from the Irish Doire, meaning oak.
Other examples include the village Edenderry
which lies in the Lagan Valley Park, and which was an important centre in the Irish
Linen industry.
According to the Woodland Trust, Northern Ireland has only 6% woodland
cover. Finland has 73% and the European
average is 45%. Our emerald isle is,
ironically and sadly, one of the least wooded countries in Europe.
Yet
everybody knows that we
need native trees to help combat climate change and improve our environment. We have a lot to do to catch up.
Step forward Sean Citizen. The Lagan Valley Regional Park office runs
projects promoting volunteering, such as tree planting and removing invasive
plants (“balsam bashing”). These eager beaver volunteers have collected 13,000 oak
acorns for replanting.
Another project
is the Wildlife Monitoring Project. Ordinary
people are involved in surveying park life ranging from bats, butterflies,
birds, foxes, frogs and squirrels.
Red squirrels
Our native red squirrel is a candidate for membership of the club of
endangered species. The threat comes
from the American grey squirrel, which has adapted so well that it is winning
the competition for survival. Greys were
introduced inadvertently to Ireland in 1911 when a group of them escaped from a
gift hamper given to a woman at Castle Forbes in County Longford by the Duke of
Buckingham[4].
In response to the crisis, voluntary Red Squirrel Groups were
established in Tollymore Forest Park in County Down, the Glens of Antrim, the
Sperrins in Counties Tyrone and Derry, and in Lagan Valley. Despite the efforts, the sad news is that reds
have disappeared from the Lagan Valley Park. None have been seen since 2011.
The grey marauders are
better at finding food and shelter. They forage so ruthlessly that they damage trees.
Greys are so greedy that they devour buds and
shoots of trees before they are ready for consumption. I have seen them do this
in Belvoir Forest on hazelnut bushes and on larch
trees, the staple diet of our little reds. Greys even wipe out birds by robbing their
nests.
To make matters worse, the grey invaders also spread the squirrelpox virus to which
they are immune, but which kills reds. In April 2011, it was reported that this deadly virus has
been positively identified for the first time anywhere in Ireland. The specialist Moredun Laboratory in
Edinburgh confirmed it as the cause of death of a red squirrel in Tollymore Forest
Park. The following month, BBC Northern Ireland’s Newsline television
programme reported that seven reds have died from the disease in Tollymore
Forest Park.
It’s going to take more
than voluntary work to tackle this pressing problem.
A couple of years ago, Belfast Zoo
established a red squirrel nook as part of a wider initiative to protect
endangered native species. Recent
reports about success in the breeding programme provide some cautious grounds
for optimism.
Birdlife
Taking our minds off the elusive red
squirrels, birdlife in Lagan Valley Park present a brighter picture.
The musical sounds of great tits can be heard
trilling “teacher teacher.” The even
more melodious blackcap can sometimes be heard singing like an operatic diva.
I have also seen starlings, blue tits, thrushes,
coal tits and, on occasions the rare and mouse-like vertically moving tree
creepers. For me, however, the heron is the most majestic bird in Lagan Valley
as it perches itself statuesquely yet with hidden menace on a strategically
placed branch protruding from the water.
The Park is also home to other animals
like foxes and rabbits.
Threats
Ben Simon describes Belvoir Park as the “prime example of a woodland under threat.” He says that the wooded former Demesne with its collection of veteran oaks is “of regional importance, and yet there is a plan for a bus route to be constructed amongst the trees.” In which case questions arise about the sustainability of the Government’s transportation strategy.
Ben Simon describes Belvoir Park as the “prime example of a woodland under threat.” He says that the wooded former Demesne with its collection of veteran oaks is “of regional importance, and yet there is a plan for a bus route to be constructed amongst the trees.” In which case questions arise about the sustainability of the Government’s transportation strategy.
In recent times, another threat has led
to the felling of 6500 larch trees in the forest. The Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service
took this radical action following the discovery of the Phytophthora ramorum disease. It is understood that the plan foresees
natural regeneration as the best way for the Park to restore its population of
native trees.
In the short term,
however, the visual impact has been emphatic.
A major reason for the success and popularity of the Lagan Valley Park is the fact that it is very well managed. The LVRP charitable company which organises events, educational tours, applies for funding, organises the volunteers - and much more little-heralded work - is currently under threat because of proposed cuts to its budget by a Government Department. They do this on a proverbial shoestring.
Wiser minds than this author are campaigning to persuade the authorities of the myopic folly of their ways. It does seem paradoxical economic theory to fix the nation's budget deficit by penalising voluntary work.
The Giants Ring
Wiser minds than this author are campaigning to persuade the authorities of the myopic folly of their ways. It does seem paradoxical economic theory to fix the nation's budget deficit by penalising voluntary work.
The Giants Ring
One of the most impressive aspects of Regional Park
is its archaeology. This ranges from the
ancient to the relatively more recent industrial revolution of immediate past
centuries.
How many cities have a 4800-year-old ancient
monument on its doorstep? The Giants
Ring predates Machu Picchu, Delphi and the Parthenon. It was built at the end of the Neolithic or the beginning of the Bronze Age around an earlier Neolithic passage grave. It consists of a circular enclosure, 200m in
diameter, surrounded with a 4metre high earthwork bank with 5 entrances, and a
small neolithic passage grave. The tomb
is believed to date from 3000 BC, and the bank slightly later.
The Park also contains raths (late iron
age/early Christian period monuments, usually 25-30m diameter).[5]
One such rath sits prominently, yet
inconspicuously, across the road at one of Belfast’s busiest roundabouts, at
the House of Sport.
The Canal
Towpath
The Lagan Canal Trust[6]
has published a guidebook about more recent archaeology explaining the history
of the canal, from the start of its construction in 1756.
It includes information about the linen
industry, which gave the canal much of its raison d’être, with mills at Hilden,
Lambeg, and Edenderry. It also contains
maps of the towpath extending from the Kings Bridge at Stranmillis all the way
to Warren Gate Bridge in Lisburn.
Kathleen Rankin tells the story of the
linen families and their great houses[7].
As she says, Lagan Valley was an agriculturally fertile area and was one of the
first to be settled in the Plantation of Ulster in the early seventeenth
century. She adds that for nearly 250
years, linen yarn and cloth were produced in great abundance in Lagan Valley.
Belfast
was known as “Linenopolis.”
May Blair has recorded the oral history
of the Lagan Canal[8].
She brings to life the daily existence
of people who lived and worked alongside it, having scoured libraries, old
newspapers, Government archives, and photographs.
Most tellingly, she
interviewed lock keepers, lightermen, haulers, canal-side farmers, and
families.
For example, she describes meeting
James Rafferty’s widow Lizzie when she was 94 who, when asked if her husband
had been a lighterman, she replied proudly
“yes – and I was a lighterwoman.”
“yes – and I was a lighterwoman.”
Lizzie told her about raising the first
three of her twelve children on board and that those were the happiest days of
her life.
A Park of Contrasts
Lagan Valley Regional Park is a sensory
delight.
I recall fondly our family Christmas
Day walk a couple of years ago when picture postcard images came true. We walked from Shaws Bridge a couple of miles
up the towpath towards Lisburn as far as Gilchrists Bridge and returning on the
other bank of the river. In brilliant light
it was an idyllic festive and sun-kissed scene, complete with an ice-covered
river and a robin staking territory below snow-laden branches. Healthy and exhilarating. I saw a man cross-country skiing.
By contrast, every July our nasal
senses are assaulted fragrantly when we visit the Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon
Park to see its famous international collection of multi-coloured rose gardens.
It’s a place where I always seem to get lost, literally and metaphorically - the idyllic escape.
It’s a place where I always seem to get lost, literally and metaphorically - the idyllic escape.
©Michael McSorley 2014
[2]NITB
statistics Tables 5 & 6. http://www.detini.gov.uk/northern_ireland_visitor_attraction_survey__january_-_december_2013___2_.pdf?rev=0
[3] “If Trees Could Talk:
The Story of Woodlands around Belfast.” Ben Simon (2009)
[4] Irish Times report 6
January 2010
[5] “Recognising
Irish Antiquities” The Archaeological Survey of Northern Ireland (undated)
[6]“A Guide to the Lagan Canal Past Present Future” Lagan Canal
Trust (undated)
[7] “The
Linen Houses of the Lagan Valley." The story of their families.” Kathleen
Rankin (Ulster
Historical Foundation 2002)
[8] Once
upon the Lagan. The Story of the Lagan Canal.” May Blair (Blackstaff Press
1981)
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