Mossley House
The house, and its courtyard which lay across the Threemilewater
River, are no longer standing, but the area is popular with local
residents (for walking their dogs) and children (who refer to it as
‘the orchard’). If you cross the first bridge, you will find the
tiles from the remains of the old coach houses and courtyard.
Follow the path past the cache to the second bridge, where you will
see a dwelling through the fence, which used to be the gatehouse.
The gatehouse can also be seen at the bottom of the Manse Road,
along with the original gateposts which marked the entrance to
Mossley House. There is no longer any access to the cache area from
the Manse Road. The area has many mature trees, and I once spotted
a kingfisher in the vicinity.
Currently, plans are in place to route the Newtownabbey Way
through this area. As you walk from the parking area to the cache,
you will see Phase 2 of the Mossley Mill development which is well
under way.
Parking
The best place to park is at the end of Lakeview Crescent, as
this is the only access to the cache area.
The Cache
The cache itself is a small tab-lock container wrapped in cloth
containing a log book, pencil, pencil sharpener and a few small
swaps. There is no need to cross the river to get to the cache.
However, please keep children under close supervision as the stream
can become very swollen after heavy rain. Although there is a path,
it can be quite muddy at times.