Glasswater Wood

Glas in Gaelic means green and the Glaswater River runs near to this site, which was once part of the Great wood of the Dufferin that ran from Downpatrick to Bangor, and now has a few patches left at the Quoile and Clandeboye.

This site slopes gradually to the north east from a small hill at the south east The three fields of 5.8 ha were bought and planted up in 2000, predominately oak and ash in the dry areas with willow and alder in the wetter areas - with much help from the local community.

The wood now forms an obvious block when viewed from the main Belfast road. The grassland was reasonable grazing with good soils before and only small wet spots lie in the hollows near to the road. A pond was created incorporating two wet areas in 2002 to encourage a greater biodiversity within the site. The access is good off the Glasswater Road and a loop path is regularly mown. The surrounding land is all cattle grazing land with many copses of trees or gorse/thorn thickets.