Clare Forest
Clare Woods East refers to small woods which are grouped together as a management unit. All the individual woods have distinct characteristics.
Activities
There are no facilities for recreational activities but the public are welcome to visit this forest on foot.
There may be restricted access to parts of the forest during forestry work so pay attention to safety advice on forest signs.
Opening times
The forests are open every day from 8.00 am until sunset for pedestrian access only.
About these woods
Clare Woods East
This group of small woods is spread out in a north/south line. It starts with Clare Wood which is just south of the North Coast, to Ballykenver Wood, just north of Armoy. There are no amenity car parks so if you are travelling to these woods by car you will need to find a safe place to park.
It is possible to travel through all of these woods on foot but be careful when using the main roads to get from one forest to the next.
You can get into Clare Woods from the Glenstaughey Road. The gate is on a bend just less than one kilometre from the turn off for the B15 Whitepark Road.
You can access individual woods from the various roads.
Clare Woods West
Clare Woods West refers to some small woods which are grouped together as a management unit in a similar way to Clare East.
All the woods are small in size and the area is made up of ten blocks in total with the smallest of these being only 4.2 hectares, comprising mostly scrub. A common feature with these blocks is the lack of access roads to and within these blocks which means that there is little or no provision for walkers. Any access roads which are present are short and rarely used.
The blocks fall under four names:
- Cloonty Wood
- Straidbilly Wood
- Moycraig Wood
- Carnmoon Woods
These woods were primarily planted in the 1980s with lodgepole pine. Some small pockets of sitka spruce planted in the early 1970s make up the rest except for a few small areas of scrub.
The blocks all lie to the east of Bushmills village. The largest block can be found by turning off the Straid Road to Ballycastle onto the Carnlelis Road, where the block lies to your right. Care should be taken on the roads leading to these blocks as many are little more than single track and there is not much signage.
How to get there
The woods are in the triangle between Armoy, Bushmills and Ballycastle.