Lurgan Park Trails Map

(1932).

Welcome to the Lurgan Park Tree Trail

The Park is home to lots of different trees, including trees that were planted hundreds of years ago by the Brownlow family when the Park formed part of the demesne garden attached to their magnificent house. However, most of the trees you will come across today were planted after the opening of Lurgan Park in 1909. The tree trail is circular and will take about one hour to complete. Along the way you will meet 13 different trees, each with a tree marker. Remember to download the ExploreABC app for the accompanying audio trail, which provides more facts about each tree.

Let’s Start

We begin at the Robert Street entrance to the Park. To find your first tree turn left onto the path that winds its way towards the tennis courts and bowling pavilion…

During the autumn, look around the base of this tree for its conker seeds wrapped in green spiky cases. Conkers were once used to help cure coughing horses, hence the tree’s name!

Take care for lone Hawthorn’s like this are called ‘Fairy Trees’, for it is believed the magical fairies live beneath them. Harming a fairy tree can result in bad luck, so best leave it alone!

Hold your nose for the Elder leaves can give off a nasty smell; so strong that people used to plant Elder by their doorways to keep flies and evil spirits out!

First brought to our shores 300 years ago from the Alps as a decorative garden tree, Larch became more widely planted from the 1800s to produce wood for boat building!

Whitebeam’s name comes from the tiny white hairs on the underside of its leaves, which help the tree keep its water and protect it from insect attack.

Quercus cerris

Ireland was once covered with Oak forests, with over 1,600 place names containing the word ‘Derry’, derived from the Gaelic word for ‘oak wood’. Local examples include Derrymacash, Derrytrasna, Derryadd, Derrytagh and Derryinver.

Corylus avellana

In mythology Hazel was regarded as a magical tree of knowledge, with its wood used to make staffs and wands, and its hazelnuts said to full of the wisdom of the world.

The fast-growing Sycamore can produce as many as 10,000 ‘helicopter’ seeds each year making it one of our most widespread trees – so much so, it is sometimes regarded as a weed!

Willow Salix alba

Long ago, our ancestors chewed the bark of the Willow to treat headaches and toothaches, which had the same effect as taking an aspirin tablet today!

Poplars love wet soils, and are now often planted to clean up our environment as their monster root systems suck up all sorts of nasty chemicals from the ground, acting a bit like a hoover!

The Ash’s hard, shock resistant wood has been used to make lots of things from chariots to aeroplanes, but perhaps not for much longer as the Ash could soon be wiped out by the deadly ash dieback disease.

Alnus glutinosa

When under water Alder wood does not rot, instead it turns harder. It is so strong that the warriors of old made their shields from soaked alder wood to protect them in battle!

During the summer months, the leaves of the Lime will be coated with a sticky sweet liquid called honeydew, produced by hungry aphid greenflies as they suck the sap from the tree.

Explore Further

Holm Oak (Quercus ilex)

H Y R

Behind the Windsor Avenue gate lodge grows a Holm Oak, which unlike most Oaks holds on to its leaves in the winter.

Irish Yew (Taxus hibernia)

At the entrance to Brownlow House stand two Yews; regarded as the tree of everlasting life due to their long lifespans of over 1000 years.

Giant Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum)

On the way to Lurgan Golf Club, you will find a skyscraping Redwood, planted to mark the death of the Duke of Wellington in 1852, the victor of the Battle of Waterloo, giving the tree it’s other name: Wellingtonia.