Carrickreagh’s View Says It All
The outlook from the Carrickreagh Viewpoint is spectacular with views over the Bluestack Mountains of County Donegal to the North and Sligo Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the West as well as looking down on Lower Lough Erne and its islands. The most striking feature of the landscape is undoubtedly Lower Lough Erne. The formation of the lake can be traced back to the last Ice Age when huge ice sheets scraped out huge u-shaped valleys such as the one now occupied by Lower Lough Erne.
Trail Information
The Carrickreagh Viewpoint sweeps up from the shores of Lower Lough Erne, one of the largest freshwater lakes in the UK and Ireland. Follow the path uphill on a gradual but steady climb through mature woodland where beech, ash, larch, oak, holly and elder are prolific. The woodland is most spectacular during early May and in late October when the broadleaf trees are at their most colourful. On reaching Carrickreagh Viewpoint you can appreciate the true beauty of this vast inland lake.
From wartime skies to wildlife
The seemingly peaceful setting discourages the notion that it was once the focus of intense flying operations during the Second World War. Sunderland and Catalina flying boats from RAF Castle Archdale, now the Castle Archdale Country Park, journeyed up Lower Lough Erne enroute to patrol the North Atlantic Ocean. Today, the forest provides a tranquil valuable habitat for woodland mammals such as badgers, foxes, pine martens and a healthy population of red squirrels.