Walk of the week: Walk in the woods reminder of history

GARRETSTOWN WOODS AND ANCIENT DEER WALL

WE cross the road from the milk churn monument and set off on the unpaved track leading past a new, stone-fronted house on the right to the forest entrance, ahead.

The milk churns are ‘iconic’. Once a common sight at cross-roads, they recall the days of the milk lorries initiated by the local cooperative creamery. Started in the late 19th century, the creameries greatly improved the economic lot of Irish farmers, evolving into agricultural societies processing milk into butter, cooperatively purchasing seed and agricultural equipment and making short-term credit available.