Terryland: the forest 3,000 Galwegians planted in a day

Stand under the Quincentenary Bridge on the Dyke Road and look north. Everything green from there to the Headford Road was open field in 1999. On one Sunday in March 2000 more than 3,000 people turned up with spades and planted an oak grove. That was the first day of Terryland Forest Park.

How it started

The campaign began in 1995, led by Brendan Smith, who still chairs the volunteer group Tuatha of Terryland. Galway Corporation’s parks department under Stephen Walsh took it on and launched it in January 2000 as the largest project of its kind in the State: 120 acres, with a plan to plant 500,000 native trees. It was also the first public park in Ireland designed with public participation, through a steering committee of residents, schools and the council.

What grew, and what did not

The oaks from 2000 are now a wood you can get lost in. The 500,000 figure was never reached. The community planting phase ran hard from 2000 to 2003 and then slowed, and volunteers have campaigned since for a full-time ranger and for the council to honour its funding commitments. Vandalism and dumping come up in the Advertiser every couple of years. What has held is the Plantathon each March. In 2025 it drew 80 volunteers from 16 countries to plant a hedgerow, a pocket forest and a willow field.

In June 2025 President Michael D. Higgins marked the 25th anniversary in the park, planted an oak and unveiled a plaque of his poem “The Mountain” on the Galway Poetry Trail that runs through the woods. Children from three local schools showed drawings of the forest made in 2000 beside new ones imagining 2050.

Walk it

Our Terryland Forest Park loop starts at the Dyke Road car park and takes about 45 minutes. The entrance by the Headford Road retail park, near Currys, is the one the Tuatha use for events.