The fine entrance gates and the portico gate lodge, north of Doneraile Town, marks the entrance to a great landscaped estate.

A beautifully illustrated booklet on Doneraile Forest Park, has been produced on behalf of the Department of Lands who took over the remnants of the Doneraile Park Estate in 1969 from the St. Leger's, who enjoyed unbroken possession of the estate until then.

The booklet has illustrations of many aspects of the buildings, bridges and of the estate; by Julie Kelleher of Cork.

The illustrations and information refer to the beautiful array of trees in the estate, the landscape gardening which was carried out by Lancelot Capability Brown.

He designed the estate with great skill and judgement - in that the dominant effects are undulating grassland interspersed with single specimens or clusters of broad leafed trees, mainly oak, beech, lime and chestnut.

Bordering the meadows are fringe belts or mass planting of broad leafed trees, to give the illusion that the meadows are clearings in the middle of woodland. Fences are sunken in the ground to avoid obstruction of the views.

As part of that, there are two interesting ha-ha fences (a deerfence), one in the north west corner and one facing the house at the end of the garden. Water was an important element in the design in that artificially diverted streams enter canals, cascades and ponds and are spanned by elegant bridges.

This, as in a number of other walks, such as the Castletownroche and, the Buttevant walks, makes use of the Awbeg River. The way through the park is a long system of avenues, designed to show all these features to the best advantage. The main avenue at Doneraile for instance, winds for a mile through the park on its way to the house.

It is difficult to describe walks within the park, however two walks may be best illustrated, one is a short walk which is waymarked within the park and the second is a long walk which follows the periphery of the Park.

Internally, there are many gravelled paths and the peripheral walk follows grass paths and borders the forests. During the walks, one may see Sika Deer in their enclosure, and the original Doneraile Red Deer.

The walks themselves are self sustaining and rather beautiful in that they take in the water system which was developed through the estate, they overlook fish ponds and wildlife within the park.

Many of the beautiful trees, unfortunately, were damaged in the storm at Christmas,1997.

The landscape gardening and the house are well illustrated in the booklet produced by the Department of Lands. There is a plethora of wildlife in that there are birds and signs of otters and many other animals apart from the deer, within the estate.

The walks can be selected according to distance and interest - it is a park which one may return to time and time again, either to walk over distance, to sit and relax or to take short walks and view the wildlife in its profundity.

The background history to the park is rather interesting. First the Anglo-Norman Family, the Synans, were the power in this part of north Cork until the 16th century.

As a consequence of their involvement in the Desmond Rebellion of 1579-1582, their fortunes declined. Some of their lands were confiscated and in 1636 they sold their lands at Doneraile to Sir William St. Leger, Lord President of Munster, for the sum of '300 Sterling.

Prior to the purchase of Doneraile, St. Leger had acquired other land holdings in north Cork and Tipperary and his position was strengthened by the grant in 1639 by Charles I of 'The Black Letter Patent of Doneraile Estate'.

It is on record that Elizabeth St. Leger, the First Viscount's daughter, eaves-dropped on a meeting of her fathers Masonic Lodge being held in the library. Elizabeth was sitting in an adjoining room and apparently overheard the proceedings through a chink in the brickwork. This would indicate that the builders were then working on the house. She was caught, and although women were excluded from Freemasonry, made to take the Masonic Vows in order to preserve the Masonic Secrets. She thereby became one of the only three female Freemasons in history.

Doneraile Court is at present leased to the Georgian Society which has undertaken the restoration work.

Returning to the pleasures of visiting the Park, one of the most spectacular features of the grounds, is the lime walk leading down to the fish pond. Towards the end of the 19th century, the area south-west of the lime walk above the large fish pond, was enclosed to provide a sanctuary for rare aquatic birds. While many of these birds have since vanished, there is still evidence of some species. Also, the exotic Japanese Sika Deer are in evidence; these were introduced into Ireland in 1860 by Lord Powerscourt in Co. Wicklow.

Many of the walks within the Park take in the bridges, of which there are three, over the Awbeg River.

Ha-ha fences protected the lawns of the Doneraile Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club from encroachment by the deer. This area of the park is still known as the tennis ground. The Sixth Viscount St. Leger was one of the founders of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis and Croquet Tournaments.

Finally, the Landlord Class, to which the St. Leger family belonged, is not generally remembered with affection in Ireland. Some Landlord's were more enlightened and humane than others but they represented a social order in which land and wealth were the privilege of a very small minority. Without this system of privilege, Doneraile Park would never have been created. The landscape here would have looked very different if it had belonged to small or even large farmers. Ironically, what was the loss of previous generations, is the gain of this and succeeding ones. Manmade landscapes are very fragile, much more susceptible to drastic change than buildings or towns. The conservation of this historic and beautiful landscape, by the Forest and Wildlife Service, means that now and in the future it can be enjoyed by everyone.