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Downhill Forest is a small mixed woodland of 83 hectares just inland from the North Coast of Northern Ireland, near Castlerock.
The Forest was originally part of the estate of Frederick Harvey, the 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, which included Downhill Castle, now maintained by The National Trust.
There are two way-marked trails in the forest; one is just over a kilometre long while the other is two kilometres in length. The North Sperrins Way, Ulster Way and International Appalachian Trail also runs through part of the forest. The North West Orienteering Club have also created a permanent orienteering course in the forest.
A walk through Downhill Forest will allow you to view one of Northern Ireland’s biggest Sitka spruce (in 1962 the girth was approximately 6m), an Early Christian Promontory Fort and an old water-powered sawmill with its lade running round the small lake in the middle of this woodland. The lake was originally designed as a fishpond and a number of Mallard ducks have taken up residence in recent times. Both the way-marked trails pass by this elongated pond.
These walks are situated in a working forest environment and may be subject to diversion and closure from time to time.
