With National Trails day AND National Tree day coming up, now is an excellent time to get out amongst our trees. Autumn is the most colourful season for our deciduous trees, as they prepare to shut down for a winter of inward hibernation.
The Sessile Oak, Irelands National Tree, is at all times one of the most colourful. From the first growth of leaves in the spring, right through to this time of the year there are a variety of hues. Subtle shades of orange, yellow and greens help the passer-by tell this tree apart from its rivals.
In Glenveagh National Park we are lucky enough to have some of the last remaining ancient stands of Oak Forest. The Derrylahan Nature trail and the
Glen walk will reward the passer-by with beautiful stands of Oak; with some individual trees at least 200 years old! Acorns and Oak Galls are all prominent amongst the falling leaves, the Galls being left behind from wasps that have used the tree to host their young. These Galls, smooth round brown balls, have been used as far back as St. Colmcille’s time as a pigment for ink. Stand for a moment under an Oak, and contemplate the amount of different plants that are using the tree as their home, not to mention the incredible number of insects
(up to 200 different species) that have been counted on or in the bark, feeding, sheltering, hunting…
In amongst the Oak forests are large stands of Downy Birch, with a good scattering of Hazel, Alder, and Trembling Poplar. All native to Ireland, all deciduous and all adding to the rich pallette of colours around us. Glenveagh or
Gleann Bheatha in Irish translates as Valley of Birch. Through the expertise and work of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Conservation
Rangers, the regeneration of these trees is plain for all to see. Areas have been fenced off to protect the young trees from the ever-hungry deer;
Rhododendron ponticum eradication programmes have been ongoing resulting in areas of forest growing for the first time in many many years in the park. The successful joining up of these areas is particularly evident on the far side of the valley as you walk through the glen, showing us that some day, perhaps in our children’s time the whole valley could possibly be restored to its past wooded glory.
Hazel trees at the moment are heavy with their fruit waiting for us to collect, an excellent pass time for children and grown ups alike, now that blackberry picking season is coming to a close. Alder and Trembling Poplar trees can be found near the water, as they both thrive in wetter ground, the beautiful
Poplar or Aspen easy to spot on a windy day with their trembling shimmering leaves. Willow, another native tree, also loves the wet ground. If you have a wet spot in the garden, as many of us do this year, these trees will help to dry it out. Planting native trees like these makes sense on a lot of levels, not least of which they are very suited to the soils and growing conditions we have. Some

forester’s say that any month with an R in it is a good month for planting trees, and that time has come.
The dramatic and hardy Rowan or Mountain Ash is putting on an incredible display at the moment. As the name implies, these are perhaps our only true upland trees, often seen surviving alone in the most remote mountain gullies. A rich food source for a large variety of birds, these beautiful trees are not to be mixed up with the Hawthorns, which fill our hedgerows with a darker shade of red berry, and the much rarer Whitebeam, with its larger juicier berry’s. All these trees supply a dizzy amount of rich food source for our birds, both native and migrant, to stock up on before the cold winter.
Watch out for the frantic activity of everything from the tiny Bluetits to the much larger migrants like the Redwings and Fieldfares, which travel in large flocks on their passage south.
Not all the wondrous colours are produced by our native trees, the Sycamore with its black-spot fungus and huge colour variance, or the Horse Chestnut with its massive leaves turn before most others. In the park, other non-native trees have been allowed to thrive, such as the stunning Japanese Maple, or Acer trees in the Castle Gardens that must be seen before the leaves disappear. The exotic Kadsura tree also in the gardens is worth standing under to breathe in the unusual sweet smell of the decaying leaves. Some liken it to the scent of candyfloss, truly an assault on the senses, seeming so false but being so natural.
Near the Bridge house, an incredible Red Oak is worth the trip alone.
The graceful Larch tree, an unusual pine as it sheds all of it needles, is starting to turn a dramatic orange. Most pines are evergreen; shedding some pine neddles in autumn and shedding some more only as new growth appears in the spring. Watch out for the yellow carpet on the trails that have Scots Pines. In the same area take the time to walk the new lake shore trail through the magnificent stands of Austrian Pines. Framed by these trees the view will take you right up the lake, taking in the dramatic cliffs and getting a real sense of the scale of the valley. Right beside this trail you have the Derrylahan trail, a little walked nature trail which we alluded to earlier, with its beautiful Oak trees but also its strong stand of Scots Pine trees, planted 110/120 years ago with their red barks and sweeping higher branches. Once native to Ireland, it is believed that the entire stock of Scots Pines in this country were wiped out, leaving only the slow growing Yew tree with its poisonous red berries as possibly our sole remaining native pine tree. The Yews were very important in ancient
Ireland, being symbols of both long life and death, with their slow growth and dangerous berries.
Right throughout Irish history trees have played a major part. An important source of shelter, warmth, food and raw materials they featured in the earliest alphabet, the Ogham alphabet as symbols beside each letter. As recently as the 1600’s there are records showing the once extensive Glenveagh
Forests used as shelter. These days only a very small 10% of Ireland is covered with trees, compared with over 30% of mainland Europe!

In Donegal we are lucky, because aswell as our dramatic mountains, our rolling coastline, we have a large amount of forested areas. A lot of these areas are being developed to encourage us to walk them. Place such as the stunning
Rathmullan Nature reserve, with its non-native stand of Beech trees, blending into beautiful native Oak and Hazel forest or Creeslough’s Duntally Nature
Reserve are more example’s of the careful and skilled work of NPWS
Conservation Rangers. Other woods outside of the control of NPWS like Ards
Forest Park and Ards friary, and Drumboe woods in Stranorlar, to mention but two are accessible to all.
Returning to Glenveagh National Park, the dedicated Nature Team has produced a new Tree Walk, pointing out both native and non-native trees on the beautiful walk from the Visitors Centre to the Castle. Collect your free map from the
Visitors centre or download it from our website www.glenveaghnationalpark.ie
So put on your boots that are made for walking, favourite coat and scarf, get out to your nearest woodland and sample the free delights that surround us!
By Aengus Kennedy,
Glenveagh Nature Team.
Glenveagh National Park
Churchill
Co. Donegal