Blog 9 Big Dog Forest/Tully Castle & Castle Irvine

October 18th 2020

Our Journey begins on October 18th as you would expect, at McDonald's for Coffee, Hot Chocolate & breakfast. We had set out to explore Big Dog Forest, one of the Marble Arch Geoparks on our list, Tracey had been suggesting this walk for some time but I only finally agreed to do it now.

The walk started Great, right into the woods on a lovely sunny day but the wooded area soon ended with trees cut down opening out a vast deforested area. we noticed several mounts along the path & I joked about climbing them would be torture but little did I know “Little Dog Hill” was approaching, A hill with a long twisted and narrow pathway up, steep and dodgy enough if you wear the wrong footwear but the views are so worth it.

We sat up there for some time taking photos & having lunch on the edge of a rock before setting off down the hill and continuing with the walk. we reached a signpost which seemed to take us off the main track around a small lake & I must say a rather unmaintained and muddy pathway I felt uneasy at times with the camera but had fun & we even ran into the lovely family we met on their way up to Little Dog Hill and again warned them of the bog areas. we ended up coming out at the same point we started so decided to head back to the car.

On our way to Big Dog Forest, we saw a sign for Tully Castle so decided to visit there, The Castle itself was closed off inside like most we have seen but we enjoyed reading about its long and bloody history, I even got my drone out & flew it around and even inside one of the windows. Yes, my heart was racing but hey, that is the fun of flying a drone.

We noticed a sign which mentioned a walk through a forested area along the shore of Lough Erne across the road beside a field of cows so decided to do it & it didn’t disappoint, Amazing views greeted us in the forest & the sound of light waved hitting the shore made for a relaxing day, we even sat at on a jetty that we came across for a time before finishing off the walk back at the car park.

On our way home we talked about places we went to around the area growing up with our Grandad & family & Tracey mentioned Necarne Castle & I had never been so, As you can guess we decided to stop there. We walked a short distance around the Castle & I got some great shots but we decided to head down the road for Dinner & come back another day to do the walk around the grounds.

Overall the day was Great, Big Dog Forest was a nice walk but if you go by Walk Ni’s webpage it is sometimes not an accurate length as we usually find it longer or shorter depending if we end up off-trail or find that routes are unmarked.

The equipment is used on this adventure were my Sony a7ii Mirrorless Camera, iPhone 11pro & DJI Mavic Mini drone for those who are interested.

Don’t forget to follow my Instagram a.mcphotography1 for the shots of these trips, future trips and other projects to come, you are more than welcome & if you want to message me about them or anything at all then feels free.

Until next time my friends Please, stay safe, healthy and keep exploring.