Legacy income is vital to our work in Northern Ireland. To date legacies have not been utilised for any specific woodland but have contributed enormously to general management work, as is the case with the rest of the UK.
To give an idea of what legacy income could achieve in Northern Ireland, £100,000 was the cost of acquiring land at Drumlamph fields near Maghera in County Londonderry in 2000 for the creation of new woodland (as part of our Woods on your Doorstep project, backed by the Millennium Commission). This new planting links and buffers an area of rare and irreplaceable ancient woodland. The new planting and the other woodland together make up 78 acres (31.5 hectares).
The ancient woodland has been traced back as far as 1599 and was once part of the extensive forest of Killetra in south-east County Londonderry. The oaks that originally dominated the wood were mainly felled in the 17th century for shipbuilding. Mature hazel now predominates, along with holly and hawthorn.
The wood and its surrounds are wonderfully rich in wildlife, including some rare inhabitants such as the Irish hare and otter. In spring you will see carpets of primroses, bluebells and wood anemone, with ragged robin and meadow sweet in the adjoining fields.