Bluebell Woods Traditional Cache
THE_Chris: After a decade of loyal service (ok a few years of is it there, isn't it) its time to let this one go. This forest needs a little mini series.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Bluebell Woods - A nice cache in a small forest just south of the town of Midleton.
Bluebell Woods is shown on the Down Survey map of 1654-1656, a French Naval map of Cork Harbour (probably 1792), and in all editions of the Ordnance Survey Maps. Therefore, Bluebell Woods is an ancient woodland that has been continuously wooded for over 350 years.
Bluebell Woods was originally owned by the Hodnett family who acquired it after the Anglo-Norman Invasion of 1260-1336. In the piperoll of Cloyne there is reference to the Hodnetts paying an annual rent of 20s for eight ploughlands in Bluebell. In 1653 St. John Broderick, a Cromwellian settler, took possession of the estate and he turned their castle into a fortified Tudor mansion. The earliest recorded information about the wood is mainly to be found in letters from the Brodericks to their Irish agents.
In 1760 John Pilkington, a young visitor to the nearby castle, mentioned in his diary that the castle was “shaded by lofty limes, elms and oak.” Later in 1782 George Broderick, the 4th Viscount of Midleton, wrote to his agent regarding the grafting of oaks after other trees had been cut down in the wood. By 1840 the 5th Viscount Midleton had hired a valuer, Charles Bailey, to investigate the condition of the estate. Following Bailey’s advice, a nursery was established in the wood where fruit trees and conifers were propagated until the estate closed in 1964.
Within the wood there are two large holes where gravel was quarried for building and road repairs. There are two dilapidated boathouses – one stone built and the other of a corrugated iron construction. Locals can recall people living in three cottages amongst the trees but only the ruins of the caretaker’s house remain today.
A short channel was dug out from the estuary in the1840s. This remained tidal until 1976 when it was infilled with dredged mud.
At the correct time of year (late March – early April) the entire floor of this forest is covered in Bluebells. It’s well worth a visit around this time! At the time of cache placement (18th March) the bluebells were up but with no flowers. So the FTF might get a nice view!
Getting to the cache
Getting to this cache is slightly different from normal, because the road leading to the parking area is not on the Navteq mapping and hence not on the Garmin City Navigator maps. If you use a route planner to get to the parking place it tells you to come off a dual carriageway through a fence and down a 4 meter drop, or to come across a river where there is no bridge.
So basically, come off the dual carriageway at either of the two Midleton exits, go to the waypoint marked “Roundabout” and go south to the parking area (signposted as ‘Midleton Estuary”). You’ll go near some houses, under a bridge, over a new cattle grid and down a one lane track but don’t worry, it is a road and is not private property! There’s room for 3 or 4 cars there. At the time of cache placement there were some roadworks going on, but you CAN get through without difficulty.
Here's a picture of the GPS track to get to the parking area, just so you know where the road is!
(visit link)
Update: Openstreetmap (visit link) now has this mapped correctly, as I mapped it for them.
The cache itself –
A small lunchbox hidden just off the trail in a quiet part of the forest. It’s not on the beach, so there’s no worry about finding this at high tide. GPS signal may get a bit erratic due to trees, if there’s problems use my hints. There’s room for small travelbugs and swaps.
Please replace the cache as you found it!
Various hints here to avoid DNFs. Hint 1 is a gentle hint, then they get progressively more obvious and together will tell you where it is. Decode as many as you need, starting with #1!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
1 Genvy gb jrfg bs vayrg
2 Guvegl zrgerf nybat guvf genvy
3 Yrsg unaq fvqr urer, nobhg svir zrgerf bss genvy.
4 Erne bs ybj gerr fghzc, haqre fbzr oenapurf