Castlewellan Forest Park is located in the town of

Castlewellan Castlewellan () is a small town in County Down, in the south-east of Northern Ireland close to the Irish Sea. It is beside Castlewellan Lake and Slievenaslat mountain, southwest of Downpatrick. It lies between the Mourne Mountains and Slieve ...

in County Down, Northern Ireland. The park covers some 460 hectares, including woodland and a 40 hectare lake. It was opened to the public in 1967 after the Forest Service of the

Department of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

purchased the land from the Annesley family. Features of the park include the National Arboretum, the Peace Maze and Castlewellan Castle.

National Arboretum

It contains the national

Arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

of Northern Ireland, started in 1740, which contains trees from Asia, North and South America, and Australasia. Giant sequoia were planted in the 1850s. They are used by

treecreepers The treecreepers are a family (biology), family, Certhiidae, of small passerine Aves, birds, widespread in wooded regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The family contains nine species in one genus, ''Certhia''. Their plumage is dull-coloured. As t ...

, who burrow into its bark and make nests. The gardens originally contained over 1800 species of trees and shrubs, planted by Hugh Annesley, 5th Earl Annesley and his head gardener. Over 700

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

still exist in the arboretum, including at least 30 champion trees. The gardens suffered from a decline in maintenance in the late 1990s due to a shortage of resources. Work to restore and conserve a number of areas, including the greenhouses and the Moorish Tower, was carried out between 2012 and 2014. Comprehensive plans for restoration of the whole park have been agreed between the Forest Service and the local Council. In 2021 a project to further restore the arboretum and the courtyard was announced. The park received £5.5 million, with half coming from the

National Lottery Heritage Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

and half from Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.

Annesley Garden

The five-hectare walled garden is the centre of the arboretum. It features formal paths, ornamental fountains, and a number of rare trees and shrubs. Notable specimens include the original 'Castlewellan Gold' Leylandii,

Ginkgo biloba ''Ginkgo biloba'', commonly known as ginkgo or gingko ( ), also known as the maidenhair tree, is a species of gymnosperm tree native to East Asia. It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million year ...

, and the handkerchief tree (Davidia involucrata). The garden also contains magnolias, rhododendrons, and

conifers Conifers () are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All e ...

Peace Maze

The peace maze located in the park was constructed between 2000 and 2001. It contains 6000 yew trees planted by volunteers from Northern Ireland. It was the longest permanent hedge maze in the world until July 2007, when the Pineapple Garden Maze in Wahiawa, Hawaii was extended.

Castlewellan Castle

Castlewellan Castle is a Scottish baronial castle built by the Annesley family between 1856 and 1858. It stands close to the entrance of the arboretum overlooking Castlewellan Lake and was built on the site of an old church. The castle was built by The 4th Earl Annesley, who commissioned the Scottish architect

William Burn William Burn (20 December 1789 – 15 February 1870) was a Scottish architect. He received major commissions from the age of 20 until his death at 81. He built in many styles and was a pioneer of the Scottish Baronial Revival, often referred ...

to design it. It was built of locally quarried granite by the Parker partnership of Liverpool. On the death of the unmarried 4th Earl in 1874, the original estate, much larger than the present park, passed to his brother Hugh, 5th Earl Annesley, who considerably enhanced the arboretum. His son, Francis, 6th Earl Annesley, inherited in 1908 but was killed in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in 1914, after which the earldom passed to his cousin Walter and the Castlewellan Estate to his sister, Lady Mabel. She left it to her son Gerald Francis Annesley (born Gerald Sowerby), who sold it to the government. Since 1974, after standing empty for ten years, the castle has been used as a Christian conference centre.

Flora

The Castlewellan Gold Leyland cypress was developed in the park from a mutant tree. It was selected by the park director, John Keown, and named ''Cupressus macrocarpa'' 'Keownii' in 1963. The original specimen is located in the ornamental gardens. The national

of Northern Ireland is located in the park. It was first started in 1740 and contains trees from Asia, Australasia, and North and South America, including Athrotaxis, Japanese Maple and Giant sequoia planted in the 1850s. In May 2018 the arboretum was awarded a plaque by the International Dendrology Society for having a "dendrological collection of exceptional merit." The society encourages the conservation of rare and endangered plants and trees. The Giant sequoia were planted as saplings in 1856. They were from a group of seed collected in California by renowned plant collector William Lobb and grown in a nursery from 1853. One of the trees has developed 19 separate trunks, a form rarely seen in cultivated specimens of this plant. The tree was voted Northern Ireland's Tree of the Year for 2018.

Gallery

File:Gateway at Castlewellan Arboretum - geograph.org.uk - 35314.jpg, Gateway at Castlewellan Arboretum File:Giant Redwoods in the Castlewellan Castle Arboretum (geograph 2842154).jpg, Giant sequoia File:The entrance to the Annesely Walled Garden - geograph.org.uk - 2842150.jpg, The entrance to the
Annesely Walled Garden File:The Walled Annesley Garden at Castlewellan Forest Park - geograph.org.uk - 3744495.jpg, Annesley Garden File:Castlewellan forest Park, peace maze.jpg, Peace maze File:The greenhouse terrace - geograph.org.uk - 2842199.jpg, The greenhouse terrace File:The ruined Moorish Tower Tea House - geograph.org.uk - 5445029.jpg, The ruined Moorish Tower Tea House File:Lake and path, Castlewellan Forest Park - geograph.org.uk - 1247430.jpg, Lake and path
Castlewellan Forest Park File:The Cypress Pond at Castlewellan Forest Park - geograph.org.uk - 5420778.jpg, The Cypress Pond

References

{{Authority control Arboreta in Northern Ireland Forests and woodlands of Northern Ireland Forest parks in Ireland Forest parks in the United Kingdom Parks in County Down