Activities

As you approach An Creagán visitor complex turn left and walk up the slope between the large stones at the beginning of the route. As you come to the brow of this incline you will have a view to your left across Creggan Bog. This is small piece of undeveloped raised bog which is home to unique colonies of plants including 14 different types of sphagnum moss, cranberry, crowberry, bilberry and the insect eating sundews, amongst others. A gravel path leads you along the edge of this bog with a short boardwalked outshot giving you the chance to get out into the midst of this soft, peaty landscape without getting your feet wet. Continuing along the gravel path you will notice to your right the hollowed out landscape of a decommissioned gravel quarry.

As you carry on up a further incline you will enter the forest. Around half a kilometre into the forest you will notice the clear-felled area to the right which has started to regenerate from the seed dropped into the soil from the mature trees before they were removed. The felling allows a view across to Sawel, the highest peak of the Sperrin mountains in the distance. The occasional standing dead tree trunk provides a perch for passing raptors. Carrying on past this clear-felled area you will come to a cross roads.

Continue straight ahead for a further kilometre through the densest part of the forest where you will emerge to a landscape of open bogland and the sound of Glassagh Burn, draining water from the spongy landscape. Pausing here you will see a rocky outcrop known as Cashel. The path leads round to the left following the meander of the burn and the edge of the forest to your left. The main road will slowly come into earshot now and the path turns to take you back in an easterly direction. You will come to a left-hand bend now which takes you away from the main road and back into the forest where you will shortly return to the cross-roads encountered earlier. Take right here to retrace your steps back to the start

Route Creggan Forest Walk

Distance 5km / 3.5miles

Time 60 minutes

Terrain Level terrain along forest access roads

Point of interest Creggan Bog, Cashel Rock, Glashagh Burn

Maps / guides Available from An Creagán centre