This afternoon’s walk was a rather convoluted loop around Mote Park forest in Co. Roscommon. This is an amenity area with loads of forest walks and is pretty well setup with a distinct lack of mud. The route was to take me to the top of this hill. It is an old demesne.

After leaving the road, the surfaces were for the most part well made hard gravel paths.

There were loads of people about enjoying the spring sunshine and in places there was a love carpet of spring flowers. It appears to be a good spot for bluebells but it’s still a few weeks too early for that.

Further along I spotted this Herb Robert flower making an early appearance.

There were fine views from the top – as is usual for midland hills you can see for 10s of miles in the distance. The power station at Lanesborough was clearly visible in the distant haze.

You could see the huge expanse of bog to the north and to the east which stretches almost the whole way from Strokestown to Killashee in Longford, punctuated by the mightly Lough Ree of course.

The forest track emerged onto a minor road at the top and I decided to follow a trail marker sign which sent me in the direction of the Mausoleum for the family that owned the demesne, the Croftons.

After this interesting visit, I had to backtrack to get back to my starting point, so I didn’t bother with any more photographs as it was just the same thing in reverse although I did take a slightly different route for a bout a kilometre.

471.5 km