Activities & Features
Walking
Coillte provides a huge range of trails and sites for walking right across the country. Much of our forest lands are in Ireland's most beautiful locations and that makes Coillte forests a great place to walk and hike.
Cycling
Coillte provide a wide range of trails for cyclists at forest locations across the country. These include family cycling trails at our forest parks, leisure cycling trails and cross-country mountain bike trails. We also provide access to long-distance cycle trails at some forests.
Orienteering
Orienteering is an activity that combines running and walking with navigation. Participants use detailed maps to select routes and navigate through different terrain and visit control points in sequence. It's a really great way to teach outdoor skills to all and you can sharpen your competitive streak when you get good at it too!
Nature conservation
The entire Coillte estate is a valuable nature resource – many of Ireland’s wild animals and plants make use of Coillte land to find food and shelter.
Play Areas and Picnic sites
We have upgraded our play areas for children over recent years and they are available at our forest parks and some other forests across the country. We put our picnic benches close to our play areas, so bring a tea or a coffee and relax while the kids blow off some steam!
Forest Parks
Our forest parks are where most people first encountered Ireland's forests. Our first forest park was opened in 1966 at Gougane Barra in Cork and since then, we have developed lots of visitor facilities at each park. They are our key recreation sites and they have something for all ages and all abilities.
Camping
Coillte have a number of different types of camping sites, caravan sites and other overnight areas.
Horse Riding
We allow horse-riding for individuals, clubs and equestrian centres under licence at some forest locations. Please enquire using this form about a forest near you.
Access For All
We provide accessible trails and facilities where we can. These are intended to give a greater level of access to our parks and recreational areas to people with limited mobility and special needs.
Boating/Canoeing
We provide access to dozens of rivers and lakes for all types of watersports - boating, kayaking, canoeing, sailing, cruising, etc. Most of the facilities are quite informal - just car-parking and an access track and in some areas a slipway - but in Lough Key Forest park, we provide full mooring facilities for cruisers in partnership with Waterways Ireland
Fishing
We provide access for anglers to many thousands of kilometres of riverbanks, lake shores and even coastline across the country.
Hunting
Game hunting and deer stalking are amongst the oldest forms of forest recreation and continue to be legally enjoyed by many people across the country
Wilderness
People everywhere are increasingly looking for opportunities to explore large natural areas for peace and quiet, for adventure and for re-generation and inspiration. In the Nephin Beg range, Co. Mayo, Coillte (along with the NPWS) have designated more than 11,000 hectares as Ireland's first wilderness area.
Geological
Cavan Burren Park was only officially opened in May 2014. The park has a large number of archaeological ,geological and cultural heritage features and is part of the UNESCO designated Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark which covers parts of counties Cavan and Fermanagh.
Watchable Wildlife
This newly opened 42 km route between Shankill and Tallaght across the Dublin Mountains has many excellent panoramic views. Also along the route there are a series of 6 Watchable Wildlife signs which describe the likely wildlife species you may see.
Compass Club
Compass Club is an After-School Outdoor Adventure Activity programme for 6 to 12 year old boys & girls and will be running in forests all around Ireland. Compass Club is proudly brought to you by Coillte
Zipit
Come join us for a unique, exciting and fun packed adventure on our spectacular Treetop Ropes Adventure Course.
Filming
Coillte On Film is dedicated to showcasing Coillte properties to the film, television and event businesses.