Easy Walk in Laois Offaly

This has been a nice weekend and I've had a bit of time to get out and about. I left home with the intention of taking a few pictures at Glenbarrow in the Slieve Bloom mountains, but I got sidetracked.

Halfway between Mountmellick and Portarlington, there's a forest at Garryhinch.


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Which is in Offaly. This is a forest with walks along the river Barrow, and ruins for exploration (though be careful, as ever with ruins they seem to attract activity, with the attendant rubbish). Parking here for probably about 15 cars or so, and 2 marked walks at about 4kms each are outlined on the notice board in the car park. One red, one blue - so they are nicely distinguishable for the colour blind among us. Trails are generally on hardcore forest roads, so pretty easy if a little tough underfoot from time to time. Worth bringing boots if you have them and raingear because you're in Ireland.





A river runs through it - and you cross the bridge to get to the larger body of the forest.



The forest floor offers a lovely combination of colour and texture:


As does the fungus on the trees! Not sure exactly what sort of fungus this is, but I didn't eat it.



I have information on another walk in Portarlington but more about that later.

More information on the walks in Garryhinch available on the Coillte website here and here.