Clement Wilson Park, Newforge - River Lagan & Lagan Towpath

Описание: Clement Wilson Park - Shaws Bridge/The Lock Keepers Cottage - Lagan Valley Regional Park - along the River Lagan and the Lagan towpath is 1.2 miles long and designed in a circle. A nice small park based in south Belfast that is also designed for disabled use.

There are different footpaths in the Clement Wilson Park that link to the Lagan towpath, route 9 of the National Cycle Network and nearby Barnett Demesne. There are a lot of things and services offered to the public in this park such as the bridge that is named after the local artist John Luke and which was installed in the park to provide better access to pedestrians and cyclists.

Looking back on the history of Clement Wilson Park and the place that it takes nowadays, we will find that it was originally occupied by a clog factory, which produced goods for people working in the mills as well as some other industries.

The journey of the park started back in 1929 when the factory site was bought by Wilson Management Ltd. who also purchased 25 acres of the land to the north east of Shaw's Bridge and there was even more land added to this space to reach 54 acres in total in 1960. This journey did not start with bringing this park immediately, but it passed through other stages at the beginning since it was first used as a factory to produce soft fruit for canning.

Later and after Clement Wilson noticed that the staff working for his factory enjoy the land surrounding it by walking through the place because they didn't have the right amount of time to go back home to have lunch, he then decided to transfer the landscape into gardens and thus it became the first "factory garden" to be found in Northern Ireland - it is also one of those parks in the city which we are now referring to for those searching for a place to stay away from the hustle and bustle of the city and have some peaceful time.

This story stayed back in history until the World War II came to life because the story of the park was changed from that time after. After the WWII, the factory was closed and not just that, but also a water current began at Shaw's Bridge and fed water from the River Lagan to the site which was filled in using rubble from demolished air-raid shelters and buildings. This covered millrace was then a raised walkway that was known as "Burmah Road" and it is now the main path through the park.

At this point there wasn't still the Clement Wilson Park which we now visit and go to but the negotiations of starting a park at that place started in 1974 when the council began them with the Clement family in order to purchase the site from them and they managed to buy 41 acres of land in order to turn it into a public park - this could also now explain to the public why the park is given this name; it is believed that there was a request from the family for giving the park the name of the company's chairman.

Officially speaking, Clement Wilson Park opened its gates after all those years to the public in October 1975 and from that time it was placed among the list of parks in Belfast that are usually visited and checked by the tourists who come to visit Belfast and discover the beautiful places that are located in it.

There are lots of parks and green spaces in Northern Ireland and Ireland in general and this might be even one of the different things that is always differentiating Ireland from the rest of the world; lots of people always mention Ireland when it comes to the greenery areas that one could be able to visit in a place.

Some of the other parks in Northern Ireland which we went to visit include Lagan Valley Regional Park (   • Lagan Valley Regional Park; History of a B...  ), Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park which is considered from the most popular in Belfast (   • Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park - Belfast N...  ), Colin Glen Forest Park in county Antrim where Gruffalo Trail is located (   • Gruffalo Trail - Colin Glen Forest Park - ...  ), Hazelbank Park (   • Hazelbank Park - Newtownabbey, County Antr...  ), Tollymore Forest Park (   • Tollymore Forest Park - Newcastle Northern...  ), Ormeau Park in Belfast (   • Ormeau Park Off the Ormeau Road - County A...  ), St. Columb's Park (   • St. Columb's Park in Derry-Londonderry; Gr...  ), Roe Valley Country Park (   • ROE VALLEY COUNTRY PARK; Beautiful Forest ...  ) and the list could keep going further because there are actually lots of parks in Northern Ireland and Ireland that one could spend the whole vacation just checking them :-)!

Always choose the park that would be closer to your location where you could have some fresh air but if you happen to be already living in Belfast or any other city in Northern Ireland then you could do a long list of parks which you could visit one of them every now and then.

We loved our trip to Clement Wilson Park and loved the history brought with it, tell us about your opinion!

Some of the best locations around Ireland/Northern Ireland and further afield. A travel blog/vlog of the hidden treasures that are on our doorstep.