Rest and be Thankful Traditional Cache

Until the end of the sixteenth century this area was native forest of oak, birch, hazel and rowan.  Remnants of this ancient forest can be seen in Boorin Wood. During the seventeenth century, like many parts of Ireland, this forest was cleared to create agricultural land.

In the seventeenth century this estate of the land owned by the Cole-Hamilton family however little is known about it until it was owned by the Black family. Originally from Dublin the Black Family built Lislap house in the 1800s and this is used as a youth hostel. The family landscaped the area and planted a number of tree species, although a severe gale in 1927 destroyed many of these.

The Falls Family (also from Dublin) were next to manage the estate. They carried out extensive landscaping in the area surrounding Lislap house in 1911 and also erected the 'Rest and be Thankful' stone on the Omagh Gortin road.

The estate was then sold to the Ministry of Agriculture in 1937 by John Collins, from Scotland (who bought the estate in 1928). This cache is not in the Forest Park Grounds but not far from its entrance at the ‘Rest and Be Thankful’ Bench.  There is a spring which filters down through the hills that is located directly opposite the bench. In years gone by it wasn’t uncommon to see a man walking alongside his horse or donkey while it towed a trailer into the market town of Omagh.  This road was and still is the main road to Omagh from Gortin and although this point isnt that far from Gortin it is just after the worst of the hills that the poor farmer would have had to climb on his Journey to Omagh.  This bench and indeed the spring before it would have been used as a rest stop before the further journey to market.

This is a cache and dash, as parking is available right next to the cache. Also GPS coverage can be restricted because of the tree cover.