Roamer: Living for a year surrounded by trees, wildlife and history
Belfast author, journalist and Roamer’s former BBC-colleague Paul Clements today looks back at a year living in a County Down woodland, the subject of his latest book.
In the summer of 1992, my wife Felicity and I sold our house in Belfast and moved to live in the Montalto estate near Ballynahinch. For a year we rented the idyllic Lakeside Cottage, around the corner from the main house.
The estate’s history is intriguing.
The land was bought by Sir George Rawdon, whose great, great-grandson was created earl of Moira in 1762, and the mansion house was built during the 1760s.
Since then, a number of dynasties have lived there, up to the present occupants, the Wilson family, who run it as an amenity forest.
The estate was particularly noted for its gardens when, in the 1770s, more than 100,000 trees were planted along with exotic specimens.
In 1798 the demesne was the site of the Battle of Ballynahinch when the grounds, and in particular Ednavady Hill, were at the centre of the insurrection by the United Irishmen.
In 1979 the estate was bought by a business consortium, John Hogg and James P. Corry & Son for £1million.
Another bidder at that time was the Rev. Ian Paisley.
Parts of the grounds were sold off in 1984 along with the dairy unit and milking parlour, while in the late 1980s the partnership abolished farming activities.
Fast-forward to autumn 1992 when we moved to live in the cottage.
A groundsman and gamekeeper were employed, and other men worked with the trees, cutting and selling logs, as the estate had fallen into a dilapidated and neglected condition.
But despite this it was still a revelation to enjoy the woods and I kept a journal of our time there recording the changing seasons.
Frequently I walked or cycled along the paths, armed with binoculars, to identify and observe treecreepers, long-tailed tits, and finches, as well as thrushes, wrens, wood pigeons and many other forest birds.
The dawn chorus of early May, the true hallmark of a bright spring which started around 4.30am, was one of the highlights.
But storms are a fact of life in any woodland.
In January 1839 thousands of trees were destroyed during the ‘Night of the Big Wind’ and as history frequently repeats itself, in January 1993 we experienced a night of severe storms with many trees flattened.
But the most ferocious storm in living memory came in January this year when the exceptionally dangerous Storm Éowyn caused severe damage in the grounds with hundreds of trees brought down. Veteran oaks, in some cases 200 years old, and 150-year-old beech trees, were among the casualties in a trail of destruction that left a palpable sense of bereavement.
In 1994, the year after we left the cottage, the estate was sold to Gordon and June Wilson who spent 12 years meticulously restoring the house to its original condition.
By 2009, plans were in place to revitalise the grounds and the repurposed demesne was opened to the public in autumn 2018. More than 30,000 trees were planted along with new flowering shrubs and bulbs.
The gardening history is now once again as compelling as its past, and worthy of the eighteenth-century heritage from which it stems.
Living there brought an appreciation of woodland life - 30 minutes observing birds can send spirits soaring and benefits mental health.
And more than 33 years after our time in Montalto, I am still living in the afterglow of those twelve months.
Paul is holding two illustrated talks based on his time in Montalto. The first, organised by the Royal Geographical Society at Queen's University Belfast, is on Thursday, September 18 at 7.00pm.
The venue is the Elmwood Building, School of Natural and Built Environment, Elmwood Avenue, Belfast BT7 1NN.
All are welcome and details are at the following link:
https://www.rgs.org/events/upcoming-events/montalto-through-the-seasons
Paul’s second talk is at the Public Record Office in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter on Thursday, September 25 at 1.00pm and tickets can be booked through Eventbrite.
The details of the PRONI talk are at the following link: Montalto: History and wildlife with a focus on The Battle of Ballynahinch Tickets, Thu, Sep 25, 2025 at 1:00 PM | Eventbrite
l ‘A Year in the Woods: Montalto through the Seasons’ by Paul Clements is published by Merrion Press (www.merrionpress.ie) and is available in bookshops and at both talks.