Oxford Island is actually a peninsula in the south east
corner of Lough Neagh, our largest freshwater lake. It's mosaic of
reedbeds, woodland, wildflower meadows and wildlife ponds make this
one of Northern Ireland’s most spectacular National Nature
Reserves.
It is a good place for both serious and occasional birdwatchers -
there are hides around the reserve (the cache site is close to "The
Closet" hide) - or you can just gape at the ducks, moorhens and
swans at the visitors' centre.
There is a decent kids' play area and paddling facilities - as a
Geography teacher I was most impressed by the functioning
Archimedes Screw which the kids seem to love.
The Visitors' Centre has some half decent information, also the
kind of shop where you can buy plastic leprechauns, and a cafe
which sent my mum (RosMcC) and me off to Moira to find a snack!
Don't be put off by this - spend some time by the lough and do some
bird and animal spotting.
The cache is a small plastic clip container disguised by black
gaffer tape. The cache co-ordinates are an average of several
readings so should be reasonably accurate but there is a lot of
tree cover which may make it challenging to get a really accurate
fix.
Follow the West Shore path from the main car park at
N5429.771 W006 23.026. Stick with the green arrows.
As you get close to the cache and off the path you may find a
stone circle "compass" at N54 29.515 W 006 23.182 - the
cache itself is about 35-40 metres ENE from this.
Small note on cache maintenance: RosMcC will assist with cache
maintenance in my absence.
While you are here, another cache,"Lough
Neagh_@_Oxford Island", GC121WA is nearby.
Please note - in winter (October till
Easter ) the park closes at 5:00pm - thanks to spy caleb for
alerting me to this.