Colin Glen Trust Announcement

HIGH HOPES FOR NEW ROPES AT COLIN GLEN TRUST

Colin Glen Trust has officially announced the launch of an exciting new high ropes course at Colin Glen Forest Park, Belfast. Due to be finished at the beginning of June, this unique activity centre will be the first of its kind in Northern Ireland and will provide an exciting and distinctive recreational offering for local people and visitors to the area.

 

Having secured investment from a number of different funders i

ncluding Biffaward, Alpha, and Lagan Rural Partnership, Colin Glen Trust undertook a comprehensive process of consultation and planning with a building contract finally being awarded to the world renowned Bulgarian company, Walltopia. Walltopia, who specialise in the construction of artificial climbing walls and climbing apparatus, have constructed in over 35 countries and are extremely excited about bringing their unique design to Northern Ireland for the first time ever.

The ropes course will be 15 meters in height and participants will have the opportunity to choose from a high ropes course at 15 meters or a lower, less daunting course at 5 meters. The course offers numerous team building and ground-based activities along with an incredible power fan descender, climbing wall and a unique double 65 meter zip line which sets it apart from anything else available in Ireland and is guaranteed to provide a thrilling experience.

The course will serve as an active outdoor adventure but will also be well configured to serve as an educational tool. It will cater for a large variety of people ranging from young children and families to veteran ‘adrenaline junkies’ and fitness fanatics.  It is perfect for corporate events and will be highly useful for effective team building in local organisations and businesses.

Colin Glen High Ropes Course will also promote active outdoor learning and assist in mental and physical development for everyone, engaging learners through motivational, dynamic delivery of tasks from a team of highly skilled individuals. The team employed will deliver quality outdoor learning which will also be highly beneficial for schools. The experience will force students outside of their individual ‘comfort zones’ as they learn to work as a team in a challenging outdoor environment. It will enable students to learn essential skills which will prepare them for education, employment and life.

The project will enhance the West Belfast area by increasing tourism and providing economic support with a huge influx of visitors expected from all over Ireland and the UK. Mr Pat McCann from Lagan Rural Partnership commented “We are very proud to support such a dynamic and exciting project and believe that it will assist in our on-going efforts to improve the local socio-economic environment. Colin Glen High Ropes Course will be a fantastic addition to Northern Ireland tourism and we are proud of our involvement in the project.”

Furthermore, the new outdoor adventure site at Colin Glen Forest Park will assist in the campaign to tackle on-going anti-social behaviour by providing youths with an affordable, fun and attractive place to visit. For a number of years, Colin Glen Forest Park has been synonymous with anti-social behaviour and vandalism, thus it will have a massive impact on efforts to eliminate this and in turn raise the profile of what is a stunning forest park. Colin O’Neill, Chief Executive of Colin Glen Trust believes that “It will be an excellent way to bring life into Belfast hills and to extend the use of the park”.

The high ropes course will be facilitated by an online website which will be an excellent source of information and will present visuals of the project from the moment building work commences.  This will also be supported by social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter which will provide an interactive medium for potential visitors. Visitors can use the website to book a range of activities ranging from £5 - £20 using a debit or credit card. The website is due to go live in May and anyone planning to take a visit to Colin Glen High Ropes Course is encouraged to make prior bookings due to the expected high demand.

Colin Glen Trust are now running a competition for the naming of the facility and are inviting people to come up with a catchy name for the high ropes course. To enter, please email john@colinglentrust.org with your suggested name, along with your contact details. The best name will be selected by 12^th April and the winner will receive a free one hour session on the course for up to 20 people, along with an invitation to the official launch which will be attended by local press.

Contact Maeve Fearon for further information, interview or pictures via email maeve@colinglentrust.org or call 02890 614115.

Colin Glen Trust History

The Colin area has developed over the last 200 years. Throughout these years the Colin Glen has had several landowners and uses.

The glen has been used for brickworks, linen, game hunting, a landfill site and most recently it is being used as a Park, which today gets used by 1000's throughout the year such as members of the community, schools and college's and tourists.

The Park itsself has been described as Belfasts "GREEN LUNG" and provides a tranquil and much needed greener area for generations yet to come. This has been achived by dedicated staff, local communities and volunteer programmes.

The name Colin comes from the Irish word "Collan" meaning a Great Height or High Ground which gives the name to Colin Mountain and also Colin River.

The Colin River rises on the slopes of Black and Divis mountains and flows downstream past Colin mountain meandering its way through the Glen to join up with the lagan at Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon park near Dunmurry.  There are also a number of small tributaries that join up with the river at different points along its course.

Invasive species in Colin Glen Forest Park

Invasive Species are a major problem across the Belfast hills, and in the Colin Glen area.  Our park has 3 major invasive species - Himalayan Balsam, Japanese Knotweed and Laurel.  These species are not native to the forest, can outcompete our native plants and can also lead to problems like erosion.

From January 2009 the Colin Glen Trust introducted a project to wipe out the invasive species in the park.  The Trust took on a placement student, Aline, who took on this project to help eradicate the the different species we have in the park.

 Aline first tackled one of the main invasive plant species - Himalayan Balsam - which she found significant amounts of throughout the park.  Once she mapped out all these areas it was up to volunteers to come in and help with the eradication of this plant. The best time for us to go and pull these plants was from late May right through to June when they were big enough to identify but not yet in flower.  The plan was to have as many volunteers go up the forest and pick as much balsam in one area as we could. Working off of Aline's map, we went from onearea of balsam to the next throughout June...and July...and August!  We also discovered a few new areas of balsam along the way that had not been mapped.  It became a much bigger project than we ever expected.  Even after we had worked through all the mapped areas, we went back over them to get any balsam that was missed - if left to set seed, every pod can produce up to 2500 seeds!  Himalayan Balsam needs to be eradicated  because it grows fast and can take over large areas of the forest.  It also blocks out light to the forest floor, making it harder for our native plants to cope.  Many of the patches of balsam were along the river, where the shallow roots of the plant offer no protection to the banks and can lead to erosion.

 Another invasive species is Japanese knotweed which was introduced to the UK as an ornamental plant. It is extremely difficult to take out of the forest due to its strong root system. Digging up this plant is difficult, so the only successful option seems to be to treat the plant with herbicide in summer and autumn months.  However, we don't like to spray here unless absolutely necessary, so we're hoping to find another way to get rid of the knotweed.

 The cherry laurel is an evergreen species which is also an invasive plant to the forest. It was introduced for cover for game birds when the glen was owned by a man named John McCance in the 1700's -1800's. Because of its thick, evergreen leaves, the plant allows little to no light to reach the forest floor.  Plus, the roots actually release a cyanide-like substance into the soil, making it harder for other plants to grow around it.  Laurel has been here in the forest for so long that it has spread over the years.  In the past, the top growth has been cut down.  However, the roots were not treated with herbicide, meaning that young shoots could still sprout from the stumps and roots.  What we have in the park now are lots of smaller, spindly laurel plants.  We're planning to dig a lot out this winter.

A Green Flag Park

Welcome to the Colin Glen Trust blog!  CGT are caretakers of Colin Glen Forest Park and Colin Valley Golf Complex, a social economy project.  The park is partly in West Belfast and partly in Lisburn, Northern Ireland.

Colin Glen Forest Park is a lot of things:

• Gateway to the Belfast Hills
• 'Green Lung' of Belfast
• An urban forest
• AND two time winner of the Green Flag Award!

The Green Flag Award, given out by the Civic Trust, is the national benchmark for parks and open spaces - similar to the Blue Flag Award for beaches.  Parks that achieve Green Flag status are judged on a yearly basis.

  

Colin Glen Forest Park initially won the award in 2008 - becoming the FIRST community led forest park in all of Ireland to win the award.  In June 2009 we were judged again for the award and were honored with our second Green Flag in July 2009!

With all of these bells and whistles to our name, you might think that we've got a huge staff and pump loads of money into the forest.  Well, think again.  All of this effort is put forth by a small and passionate staff in the forest, the office and our social economy projects.  We know the potential of these 200 beautiful acres and we're not afraid to prove it!

As we set off on our blog adventure, we hope you'll enjoy learning about the hidden gem that is Colin Glen Forest Park.