GLADE OF SHINING BUTTERCUPS
Glade of buttercups
Castle Caldwell Forest, County Fermanagh
The day the sun bends high enough through the sky to thaw the fox’s nape signals the renaissance of spring. So too does the quietening of the river, the swelling of the hedgerow and the newt’s first dip. Spring has many beginnings. At Castle Caldwell Forest in Northern Ireland’s far west, it is the humble buttercup that proclaims the rebirth of this resonant season.
At first, just one or two yellow cups appear in the forest glade, poking their joyous heads above a sea of green. Then four or five; a dozen; a score. A few days on and the entire meadow is awash with brilliant flowers. You could do far worse than find an oak on the forest edge, lay your back against its trunk and watch insects whir as the sun and wind throw shapes across the lea. But for those with a little more energy, there are many more spring beginnings to be found on this wooded peninsula that stretches more than a mile into Lough Erne.
1 IVY FAÇADE
There are three waymarked trails in Castle Caldwell Forest: Castle Scenic Walk (0.3 miles), Beech Wood Walk (1.2 miles) and Rossergole Point Walk (2.5 miles). For the third option, park at the western end of the forest where there are picnic tables, interpretation boards, toilets and a jetty.
Follow the Rossergole Point markers east through budding trees to the ivy-cloaked ruins of Castle Caldwell. Built in 1612, the castle was once “a most comfortable good house, a very large court of excellent offices” (Francis Newbery, 1780).
2 TUFTS AND CRESTS
Take a slight left from the castle to join the lough shore, where alder and willow trees lean like parasols over the water. Until the late 1800s – when the lough was lowered by three metres – this path was submerged; the old water line is marked by a verge of oak and beech trees above the trail. After half a mile you will pass a small pond before swinging south to Rossergole Point. In spring, tufted ducks, red-breasted mergansers and great crested grebes can be seen courting on the water.
3 SOUTHERN SHORES
Continue around the peninsula for half a mile then veer once more into forest, where bluebells grow among mats of moss and yawning ferns. Follow the boundary of one of those pretty buttercup meadows – looking out for red clover flowers, too – to return to the castle, then retrace your steps to the car park.