Rossmore Forest Park, on the former lands of the Barony of Rossmore in Monaghan, is a delight for families. Around the grounds of the Coillte-managed park are the Drumlin Giants with great stories to tell.
The giants include Big Ross, asleep underneath the adventure playground with just his head and feet showing. Children can climb inside his head.
Roddy Den Drum is a giant head, almost 10 metres tall, overlooking the lake. Banba is the Queen of the Drumlin Giants and is formed from over 4,000 pieces of up-cycled timber from the park. She measures over 18 metres in length; she is at the park entrance.
Garaidh Den Drum is known as Spike and is a spear thrower. He is on the hill facing Roddy and waiting to catch you out. A large spike at the split in the path is a sure sign that Garaidh is close by.
Dagda, a chieftain of the Tuatha de Danann’s Cauldron of Plenty was never known to go empty. This massive steel crock pot is a lovely spot for photographs.
The park also has marked trails for walking from one to eight kilometres, lakes, an adventure playground with swings and zipwires. It is open every day and there is the Coffee Doc for snacks and drinks. At weekends the food truck Blasta is based here and serves Tex Mex type food. There are also picnic spots and restrooms available.
The idea of the giants came from Paul Bond of the Monaghan Town Team. The installations were made by sculptor, Marc Kelly who has worked on Game of Thrones and made Mr. Tayto. There will be more giants appearing in the forest in the future. Well worth a visit to Monaghan.
Rossmore Forest Park is about three kilometres from Monaghan Town on the Threemilehouse/Newbliss Road. There is no entry charge.
You can download a trail map of the park on Coillte.ie
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