The New Look of Coole Park

Dear Readers

Coole Park is park very closely located to where we live, and we love going there for a walk or a picnic in the walled garden. I had noticed a while ago that there was some signage up that they were going to do some tree felling, but didn’t take too much notice.

I did take notice when the beautiful avenue of trees was taken down, however I understand this was done for safety reasons, as some of the trees were rotten/diseased and from time to time  some branches would have broken off, which would have been very dangerous if you were walking under it.

This is the way the trees used to look:

Once that the avenue trees were felled, there were bigger plans to fell a large amount of Norwegian Spruce trees. The result if a significantly brighter park with ….fewer trees.

Below are a few images. The largest transformation(first image) is across from the toilets in the park. This area would have been the back of Lady Gregory’s house. Someone told me that when they lived in the house, they could see the lake from the back of the house. The area that is now tree less, used to be their vegetable garden.

 Exiting the walled garden, I took following images.

The play tree – the kids love it!

Sown off tree trunk – Counting circles, I think the trees was about 80 years old.

It’s of course a pity to see all the trees felt, but I think there good things happening too!!
The kids spotted this fresh growth of Cowslip, which is a protected Irish wildflower: I took following info from the Irish Wildflower website :

This pictures was taken on the avenue , walking back from the lake into the direction of the car park.

I took this last picture as it reminded me a  bit of the once avenue we had. It’s not quite the same yet, but over time the trees will grow,so hopefully when our kids are adults, their kids can enjoy this wonderful place.

Have a great week ahead!
Katleen