Drewstown Woods - Girley Bog walk

This is one of my favourite places to be. I love the peace and quiet here, the birdsong, the butterflies and dragonflies in summertime. It is a great place to go to get away from it all. The trail is a bit rough in places but that's what you would expect on a bog walk! It still has something of the feeling of a wilderness thankfully.

It is easy to dismiss our bogs as not possessing the grandeur of mountainous landscapes or the Majesty of the sea. However, they are hugely important ecosystems that provide a home for a fabulous array of wildlife and Girley Bog is an excellent example of this. You can see orchids, mosses, wild cranberries, bog cotton, moths, lapwings, frogs and many other species that only live in these unique landscapes. Loved looking out for all these things on my walks around Girley, an easy and we'll maintained terrain and a good stretch for someone of moderate fitness like myself. Great views from some points over the boggy landscape - a special place!

A bit of a disappointment. A bland enough walk and not well signposted. Be careful: the boardwalk is coming a bit loose in a few places. Signposting is poor and at one particularly ambiguous spot you could be sent off on an incorrect path.

OK if you live locally but definitely not worth a journey.

Also rather a lot of dog poo on the path for the first mile or so.

Don't think I'd bother coming again.

I agree with Sean, the signposting is not good. However, because I knew someone who had visited previously, I thought I had a slight advantage, but still drove past it. I believe the scenery is very close at hand, there are wonderful colours of the purple heather with a backdrop of the copper and greens and in the evening time, when we visited the scent of the flowers was fantastic. We did follow the signs until we came to 3 boards/maps welcoming us to the forest, there is obviously other entrances. These maps did not say where we were and only for a local woman walking her dog, we may be there yet, but we would not have starved as the wild raspberries were in abundance.

Nice easy walk. Covered it with two kids in just over one hour in good weather. The pros - the trail is well posted, flat walk with no inclines and nice raised boardwalk over the bog. The cons - this trail is difficult to find (microscopic sign on the N52 on the left when coming from the Kells direction), actually drove by it initially, lane up to the trailhead is riddled with large potholes so drive slowly, unfortunately there is nowhere to pause on this trail - no resting point whatsoever which is a shame, it wouldn't have taken much to put a bench down after each couple of K. Overall, a couple of small improvements would make this a really nice walk - proper signs on N52, some rest points on the trail - it's not particularly scenic, it is a bog after all, but nice tree lined stretches coupled with boardwalks made it interesting for the kids and the walk itself is not very challenging so again, ideal for young hikers.

Nice walk. Very easy. Just follow the arrows, but when you leave the forest and will see the wooden trail, instead of going straight turn left and make a circle around the bogs. It will bring you back to the trail. Do not step off the wooden trail. Bogs are very interesting and dangerous. Had a small fella with me and showed him like a 3 foot long stick disappeared in a place where you would step if you did not know that you were in a bog area. Good, easy and very informative for kids.

PS Screws used to fix the wooden path are not good enough. Seen a few places where they broke already.

Walked this trail on the 27 of October. The track was well sign posted and maintained there was even straw on the really muddy parts however wear boots not trainers. Did this trail just as it was getting dark. Lots of wildlife about including an owl. Excellent for short stroll.

THIS IS A LOVELY TRAIL WITH NO EFFORT REQUIRED. TAKES ABOUT 2 HRS TO STROLL AROUND WITH ONLY A FEW MUDDY SPOTS - THE TRAIL IS WELL SIGNPOSTED BUT GETTING THERE COULD DO WITH SOME IMPROVEMENTS - IT WOULD BE VERY EASY TO MISS THE TINY SIGNPOST OFF THE MAIN ROAD. DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THIS WALK FOR GETTING STARTED