Tollymore Forest, its connection to the RMS Titanic ship and the legend of the Blue Lady

The island of Ireland is a land steeped in legends dating back to ancient times. One of them involves a forest.

The enormous golden Celtic cross that appears every autumn in a forest in Donegal, Ireland
Lissummon, a long, abandoned tunnel hidden in the Northern Ireland countryside

Tollymore (Tulaigh Mhór in Irish Gaelic) is a beautiful woodland located in Down County, in the northeastern part of the Green Erin, as the Irish call their beautiful land. This place has been inhabited since prehistoric times. In recent years, archaeological remains have been found there, some dating back to the Paleolithic era.

This area was one of the first parts of Ireland to fall under Anglo-Norman rule after the invasion of Ulster in 1177. In the 17th century, William Hamilton acquired the lands that include this forest. In 1730, the family built a luxurious mansion next to this forest, known as Bryansford House or Tollymore Park House, which plays an important role in a legend associated with this wood.

Hamilton's descendants retained this property until 1798, after which it passed to the Jocelyn family, who transformed the woodland into a profitable source of timber for sawmills. Between 1930 and 1941, the family sold the land to the Northern Ireland Ministry of Agriculture, which continued to use the forest for the timber industry. Finally, on June 2, 1955, Tollymore became Northern Ireland's first state forest park.

One interesting fact about this forest is its connection to the famous ocean liner RMS Titanic, which sank in the North Atlantic on the night of April 14-15, 1912. The oak wood for the ship's famous staircase came from this forest. Wood from this forest was also used in the construction of the Titanic's two sister ships, the RMS Olympic, which sank in the Aegean Sea in 1916, and the HMHS Britannic, which was decommissioned in 1935 and scrapped two years later.

Before Tollymore was declared a forest park, the dilapidated Bryansford House was demolished in 1952. The Irish website spiritedisle.ie claims that after the house's demolition, a ghostly "Blue Lady" began appearing on the paths of Tollymore. She is said to be a melancholy woman who wanders the forest searching for her lost love, a legend that has been passed down through generations to this day.

This magical-looking place might seem familiar to some of you because this forest was chosen as a filming location for the famous series "Game of Thrones". If you'd like to see this forest in more detail, a month ago the channel The Gentle Stroll posted a nearly hour-long video of them silently exploring Tollymore Wood. I didn't see any Blue Lady, but I wasn't really looking for anything too unusual...

You can see some screenshots from this lovely video here. Here we can see the gravel path that runs through the forest.

Foley's Bridge. Although it has a medieval appearance, it was built in 1787 (the date is inscribed on the bridge) over the Shimna River by one of the Counts of Clanbrassil as a gift for his niece, Harriet Foley, although some claim it was a gift for his wife, Grace Foley. It is one of 16 bridges spanning the river. The oldest dates from 1726.

A small blue door at the foot of a tree. An Irish joke, or perhaps the dwelling of a gnome? I suppose it's the former. A gnome would have been more discreet when choosing the door to his home...

The Horn Bridge was built between 1750 and 1760. It originally served as the entrance to Bryansford House until its demolition in 1952. Its name has a curious history. Apparently, a whale once became beached on Newcastle shore. Four of its ribs were fixed to this bridge. Whale ribs were then known as horns, hence the name.

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Main image: The Gentle Stroll.