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| TYPE | Circular urban walks along footpaths between and through Holywood Parks |
|---|---|
| DISTANCE | 5 miles / 8 km |
| SURFACES | Mostly asphalt paths and roads. Short sections unsurfaced, potentially muddy, paths. |
| HEIGHT GAIN / LOSS | 430 feet climb |
| HAZARDS | Normal urban walking hazards. Two road crossings with limited visibility where extra care is need. Two short flight of uneven steps. The optional full Glenlyon loop included extended flights of concrete steps. |
The Town of Holywood is well provided with urban parks. However, these are all small and individually only make for short walks. By joining four Parks together via a route which also visits much of the best of Holywood this walk aims to provide exercise, interest and above all beauty.
NB the route does not include Redburn Country Park which sits on the hills above the town).
4 Parks Walk Interactive Map
The walk starts at the Holywood “centre of gravity” the Maypole. This crossroads defined Holywood on old maps in years gone by and today with its Maypole is still the focus of the town’s identity and festivities.
Turn down the Main Street and follow along Holywood’s retail core on the left hand pavement.
You soon come to a flamboyant Victorian Gothic building which currently houses Holywood Library, but was originally the Sullivan Schools.
In front of the Library three artworks neatly summarise 1500 years of Holywood History. The three buildings represented recall the Old Priory, the Norman Motte and the Victorian suburban boom town. However, the pillars themselves echo the elaborate forms of the gateposts of the Victorian Villas. You will pass a fine example of one of these shortly.
Leaving the shops behind, the Church of Saint Colmcille now appears on your left. Again Victorian Gothic architecture features, but here it is complemented by a bold modern building which replaced the body of the church tragically destroyed by fire in 1989.
Crossing My Lady’s Mile road (another reference to Holywood’s long ecclesiastical past) you now come to Number 154 which has preserved its original gate pillars.
Continue and look out across the road for Holywood CoFarm a forward looking community project working to change Holywood’s diet, health and environment for the better!
Now in one way CoFarm is only rediscovering the wisdom of the past.
The natives of this parish live principally by tillage. There are a few weavers and hosiers amongst them, but their employments seem to take up their time only when they cannot employ themselves in agricultural pursuits. Almost every weaver, except those who live in the village, has a piece of ground sufficient to furnish his family with potatoes, oatmeal and milk. This plan of intermixing avocations, although it may not tend to the improvement of trades or agriculture, appears to be highly serviceable to the interest of the individual, both in point of health and general comfort.
Nothing can be more distressing than to see the pale meagre appearance of the town or city artizan, whose constitution is undermined by the sedentary life which he leads, as well as the confined air which he is obliged to breathe, and whose mind is as relaxed as his body, by the dull monotonous exercise of his calling; but when he is transplanted to the country, and employs himself occasionally in cultivating a piece of ground, the exercise and interest he feels in his occupations, give new vigour to his frame, and elasticity to his mind
Parish of Holywood (County and Diocese of Down)by the Rev. William Holmes, Incumbent
Excerpt from No.VII in Mason, William Shaw. A Statistical Account or Parochial Survey of Ireland, Dublin, 1819
Passing CoFarm and the modern Sullivan School you come to the junction with Abbey Ring. You could turn left here on your way to Holywood Nature Park, but there is a much better pedestrian route alternative – so continue on the Belfast Road for a further 150m to a bus stop shelter where you turn left along a “Greenway” to enter the Abbey Ring estate as a foot traveller.
The design of Abbey Ring pre-dates the “car park to car park” concept of the modern housing developer. The sad idea that you invariably step out of your house directly into a car and drive to another car park blights our modern suburbs. Here walking is quick, safe and pleasant. The housing is varied and incorporates private gardens and semi-communal green space.
The Nature Park itself was once a local playing field, but the relentless trend to synthetic pitches, windowless halls and artificial light left it unloved and underused.
So, on meeting Abbey Ring turn left and immediately right and follow West Link and on traffic free paths through the middle of the estate eventually meeting Abbey Ring again where you turn left and right into Abbots Wood.
The north entrance to the Nature Park is 50m down Abbots Wood on the right hand side and is marked by an austere black metal post – in stark contrast to the signs of our other town parks.
Any good park should permit the visitor a choice of paths and a chance to find their own way. This park started life as a modest rectangular playing field, but its clever re-invention as a wildflower rich meadow fringed with snippets of woodland and the associated surfaced and mowed paths really does invite the wanderer in!
So find your own way to the east gate and out onto Demesne Road. Turn left and follow the road for 450m to where you again cross My Lady’s Mile. On your right you will pass a number of impressive high-set houses looking out over still intact mature gardens to Belfast Lough beyond.
After crossing My Lady’s Mile carefully cross Demesne road and take the second turning on the right into Demesne Avenue. Now turn left into Demesne Grove looking out on the right for the grassy public right of way which leads up to Plas Merdyn.
This short cul-de-sac affords perhaps the best views over Belfast Lough of anywhere in Holywood. Turn left and follow it out to its junction with Church Road.
Now turn left and after 50m carefully cross the busy road to enter Glenlyon car park at the top entrance (this point has clear views up and down hill unlike opposite the lower entrance).
Glenlyon Park is primarily a narrow steep sided river valley with many flights of concrete steps. However the lower section is much flatter and also features sheltered open grassy areas which are particularly pleasant in sunny weather. The suggested route below visits most of the park but if you restrict yourself to the north end all the steps and slopes can be avoided.
Leave the car park by the flight of concrete steps climbing up to the ridge above the Twisel valley beyond. The trees here are mainly mature conifers surrounded by dark thickets of the inevitable invasive cherry laurel. Turn right uphill and continue for 170m and take the second path to your left down a flight of steps to the river. Cross the bridge and turn right upstream.
The vegetation here is more natural and a youngish woodland lines both sides of the valley. There are a number of pools and you will soon come to an attractive small waterfall.
Shortly after this the path swings sharp left uphill ascending a steep flight of steps. The trees here are more mature and hint of the time that the wooded valley was part of the garden of the extensive gardens of Glenlyon House in the late 1800s.
On reaching the top of the steps you then descend almost immediately passing a very substantial mature conifer on your right – almost certainly planted as a Victorian landscape feature.
At the foot of the steps you find yourself back at the footbridge where you cross and turn right downhill. Here you are sandwiched between great fallen trees on your left, evidence of the destructive power of recent storms, and dark thickets on the riverside on your right.
However, you soon exit the dark domains for a flatter area of open grassland and there is a network of smaller informal paths here which facilitate the exploration of the riverside and wooded park edges.
Now return slightly uphill to the right following a path back to the car park.
Leave Glenlyon carefully crossing the road at the lower entrance. From this side there is sufficient view of traffic in both direction, but it is unsafe if crossing the other way. It is necessary to cross as there is no footpath on the other side linking the park to Holywood. Head downhill for 200m and then cross the road again just after the entrance to Newcroft Lodge. Continue downhill and turn right into Church Avenue.
Notice that the street sign here includes “leading to Twisel Bridge” – this is as close as you will get to pedestrian signage on this walk marking Holywood’s secret network of pedestrian rights of way!
Follow Church Avenue to the end of the public road where the Twisel path cuts downhill to the burn. You now have a short waterside walk up hill and across a bridge with steps up onto Victoria Road. Be careful crossing here as visibility to your left is limited by a bend in the road and there are no traffic calming measures to limit speed.
Now follow Victoria Road uphill until it meets Croft Road. Cross directly into Woodlands and after 170m enter Ballymenoch Park by its southern pedestrian entrance (C) on the map below).
The park is well worth an exploration and while the path network is limited, walking though the semi-wooded northern part is a good option if the ground is dry. Don’t miss the Giant Redwoods and the big Turkey Oak.
There is a separate page on the Places section of this website (Ballymenoch Park) which covers the history and trees in the park in detail.
Exit the Park at the pedestrian gate (B) and turn right along the A2 dual carriageway. The noise of the speeding traffic on this section is unpleasant, but you will soon leave it behind.
After 150m cross the petrol station entrance with care and then use the two pelican crossings linked by a footpath to get across the A2 and turn into Farmhill Road just past a second petrol station. Almost immediately you come to a bridge across the Holywood to Bangor railway. Don’t cross but instead follow the footpath on the left down a ramp and onto the Belfast-bound station platform.
The old station house survives on the other platform. Marino Station was once know for its floral displays and these won 1st prize in a railways competition 21 times between 1886 and 1914.
Continue ahead up the exit ramp to join Old Quay Road and turn right to cross the railway and head downhill toward the Lough. The name “Old Quay” derives from the former moorings on the coast at Cultra which were once an important landing point for coal and other essential goods.
After 150m the road swings sharply to the right but you continue straight ahead to a pedestrian entrance to Seapark with a fine view over Belfast Lough.
Seapark is little more than a small grassy area bounded by the North Down Coastal path with a couple of car parks and a large children’s play cage. What makes it is the seaside – beach, sand, waves and a great view across the Lough towards Whiteabbey and the hills beyond. Ice cream is often available from the trailer at the top of the park and coffee from an excellent coffee van.
On a fine summer’s day it gets extremely hot and crowded and the limited car parking, single vehicle access under the railway bridge and a difficult junction with the A2 dual carriageway, leads to long tailbacks coming and going.
Amazing in all this chaos the lovely, well shaded, Ballymenoch park (a mere 300m away) will be largely empty. So, as so often is the case, park and walk (or public transport) is the best policies by far.
When you reach the coastal path turn left and continue around the headland into the next coastal green space, Praeger’s Field.
There is no car park here so even on the hottest day you can find space on the beach or your own patch above on the field with great views over Cooper’s Bay and the Belfast Hills
Turn inland at the panel above and follow the path under the dual carriageway to the old town cemeteries . Here turn right along Priory Park and continue past the ruins of Holywood Old Priory .
You are now at founding site of Holy-Wood (Sanctus Boscus in medieval Latin)- the Old Priory Church. Parts of this building started life as an Augustinian Abbey in the twelfth Century, later became a Franciscan Priory (1840), then a joint Anglican / Presbyterian Parish Church (1615), then an Anglican only Church (1861), then abandoned as place of worship in 1844 and made into a clock tower!
Now join the old Bangor Road and follow it around the corner where it turns into Holywood High Street
On your right you will see a playground guarded by a bronze statue on a rough granite plinth. This is Holywood’s enduring favourite piece of public art “Jonny the Jig” – a poignant link to a less cynical time.
A final 100m and you are back at your start point, the Maypole. Refreshment options abound on all sides!
