Tardree Forest Walk
At 336 hectares, Tardree is one of Northern Ireland’s oldest state forests and provides ample opportunity for walking. The gradient of the walk is moderate, with some steep sections along the way.
County Antrim
Distance 2.5 miles
OS Map Sheet 14
Terrain Moderate, off-road paths
Nearest Town Parkgate
Route Shape Circular
Grid Reference J186933
Route Type Hill, Woodland
From the car park, follow the red route as indicated by painted arrows on woodland posts. After several turns, the track clears the forest and views open up ahead towards the windfarm on Elliots Hill. Soon after, the Belfast Hills come into view towards the south. Continuing ahead, as you turn the bend and begin a sharp descent along the track, Slemish Mountain comes into view. As you walk downhill you soon pass Tardree Geological Nature Reserve on your left. Then continue to follow the red arrows for another kilometre or so, before the path eventually leads you back to the starting point at Duncan’s car park.
These walks are situated in a working forest environment and may be subject to diversion and closure from time to time.
Up to date information is available on the Forest Service web site – link below.
Views of Belfast Hills and Slemish Mountain, old quarry
Follow the signs for Parkgate from Templepatrick. Just after reaching Parkgate, turn left onto the Connor Road. After 5km, turn right, following the sign into Tardree Forest.
Car parking, picnic facilities
Comments will be reviewed and those that cause offence will be removed. This is at the discretion of WalkNI.
We want everyone to be able to enjoy the walking routes listed on WalkNI safely and easily.
If you have come across any problems whilst walking a route, please let us so we can pass on any issues to the appropriate management body responsible for maintaining the walk.
Walk Route
Tardree Forest Walk
Great wintery walk around Tardree Forest this New Year’s. Lots of snow and ice which transformed it into a winter wonderland, got to do some Geocaching as well which was great and plenty of parking available from the Parkgate Road side of the forest.
Went up to the forest and would agree that it is very bad signage and you could get lost. The other disappointing thing was the amount of irresponsible dog owners who allow their dogs to foul the walkways. They seem to think because no one can see them that it is alright to allow their dogs to foul all over the place.