Colour Series 2 on the 28th March 2026 will take place in the first state forest to be created in Northern Ireland. However the history of this wood goes much further back in time. Once known as the Caman Wood the name refers to the ash camán or hurley sticks once made from its trees. By the early 1800s the wood (the largest in the county) had become the demesne of Walworth House and was also a busy commercial forest:
Timber and Bark
Ordnance Survey memoirs of Ireland, Parish of Faughanvale, 1833
In the wood of Walworth the trees cut are oak, birch, ash and beech. They
are exported in light boats to Inishowen and otherparts of Donegal.
From 20 to 30 tons of bark are also sold every year, at a price varying from 7 to
10 pounds per ton. During the peeling months from 50 to 60 labourers are employed, chiefly women, at the wages of 10d a day.
Our event features more recent technology and a new map partially based on LiDar data which will allow the planner to make best use of some of the newly mature areas. Even though there is significant damage from the storms of recent years, the forest as a whole is probably the most runable it has been since first mapped by NWOC in the 1970s.
For full details please see the event page below:
