Coill Ghobnatan

Slí na Coille, can also be done the reverse way, that is by beginning at the Forest park in Baile Bhuirne as sign posted. Follow the shady sylvan pathway to the cemetery boundary wall. Take the metal stairway over the wall and go through the cemetery. At the entrance gates, go left down past the car park, and new cemetery, from there it is downhill all the way to the main road (N22). This walk takes about 60 or 70 minutes.

Cromwell arrived in Ireland in 1649 and in the next few years his troops and those of his Irish henchmen, such as Murcadh “the Burner’ O’Brien and Lord Broghill, went on the rampage burning villages and churches and executing priests and bishops. The people of Baile Bhüirne, fearing a visit from Broghill, (who had troops based in Macroom) removed the thatch roof from their beloved church. The valuable roof timbers were hidden down in the valley behind a rock cave at the rear of where the Hibernian Bar stands today. At the time neither bar nor village or even street existed, but the rock was known locally as “Carraig an Adhmaid” 130 years later, when the village came into existence, it was called “Carrig an Adhmaid”, a name it retained both locally and officially until the 1970’s, when the postmark was changed to “Baile Mhic Íre”. To return to base now you have two options. You can (1) return on the road by which you came or (2) you can be a bit adventurous and go back by Slí na Coille through the glades of Gort na Tiobraid wood.