Cabin Wood

Dungannon Road Cookstown BT80 8TL, Tyrone

Still in its infancy, Cabin Wood is a new woodland creation scheme managed by the Woodland Trust and Mid Ulster District Council. This 6.5 hectare wood has over 12,000 native trees, some of which were planted with the help of local people. Despite being situated only 1km from the edge of Cookstown, Cabin Wood retains a remarkably rural feel of beauty, peace and tranquillity.

The wood and neighbouring Killymoon Estate form an excellent habitat for wildlife, including Fallow deer. The deer cause a little grazing and rutting damage along the edge of the river where they have a corridor for passing through the site, and at the furthest end of the site.

It is also home to a wide variety of flora, such as bluebells, wild garlic, primroses and wood anenomes. Tree species include mature oak, ash and beech along with some large sycamore leaning over the river.

The wood has a network of paths including an attractive circular walk from the car park, with some lengths of steep slope in parts. There are also a number of steep, unofficial paths to the Killymoon and Ballinderry Rivers which border the wood.

Spot the remains of an old saw mill and keep a look out for Red deer swimming across the rivers from the Killymoon Estate to visit the Wood.

Cabin Wood is one of the 50 Woods on your Doorstep (WOYD) sites in Northern Ireland. The development and first 5 years maintenance of the WOYD sites were 50% funded by the Millennium Commission. Each of these WOYD sites has a feature created to mark and celebrate the millennium. Here the millennium feature is a seat shaped like a wood saw to highlight the history of saw milling in the area. There are 3 other seats around the site. This site was named Cabin Wood after the woodland that used to exist on the same ground and whose remnants remain on the steep bank down to the river.

GETTING THERE

A brown tourist information sign points the way to the wood from the B520 Cookstown to Stewartstown Road. Cars can be driven down a track leading to a small Woodland Trust car park. There entry can be gained via the less abled access gate onto a stone path that runs the whole length of the wood. There is a less abled access gate at the eastern end of the Wood too, and a short circular walk can be made back to the car park via a management access track outside of the wood which links the 2 entrances. The path within Cabin Wood is steep in parts but generally follows the contours of the site. There are currently no opportunities for walking in the wider countryside from Cabin Wood. 300m of unofficial riverside pathways were upgraded in 2008 allowing access along the picturesque Killymoon River.