Breen Forest
This compact forest, which covers just 600 Hectares, is distinctive in its combination of a National Nature Reserve (NNR) of native oak within a predominantly coniferous woodland of maturing spruce, larch and pine.
A detour through this native oak woodland, a small reserve with no clearly defined paths, will bring you into a setting of ancient gnarled and stunted oak trees hosting a wide range of associated plants, fungi, mosses and lichens. In spring and summer the ponds and damp gullies are a haven for newts and dragonflies, and Bluebells and wood anemones are among the woodland flowers. In winter the dark green holly bushes contrast with the leafless branches of the oak, birch and hazel which are hung with lichens and mosses. Badgers and red squirrels are present, and buzzards are also a common sight circling above the forest canopy.
Opposite the NNR entrance to the left of the forest road you may notice the standing stone in the field. Little is known about it, but it stands as witness to human activity and involvement in this area far back in unrecorded history. There are also two other archaeological sites in the forest area of note: a Souterrain which is located within the fields to the rear of the farm buildings but which unfortunately is not very visible on the ground, and McQuillan’s Grave (chambered) which is situated to the eastern boundary of the forest.
The road climbs up past young plantations of Christmas trees and ridges of the ancient oak wood till it reaches the commercial high forest offering an excellent view directly across to Knock Layd mountain. The Moyle Way transects the forest and is posted with the blue logo sign above a directional arrow, but watch out for the route marking that turns left off the forest road and follows a burn to the eastern edge of the forest.
How To Get There
From Armoy: 5km to the East of the village on the B15 Glenshesk Road;
From Ballycastle: 10km to the South of the popular seaside town on the B15 Glenshesk Road;
Visitors should park in the small car park beside the B15 and walk up the road hedged with hawthorn and ash going into the forest. Care must be taken to ensure that no access points are blocked.
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