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.
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