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CRATLOE

CO. CLARE · IE

Cratloe
An Chreatalach, Co. Clare

STOP 06 / 06

An Chreatalach · Co. Clare

The hills above Limerick, an ancient wood, and the 2014 Clare hurling and football double.

Cratloe sits on the Clare side of the Shannon, on the rise of the Cratloe Hills, where the N18 curves between Limerick city and Bunratty. It is the kind of village you pass without slowing - the road is fast, the signs are brief - but the hills above it hold a real forest and a legend or two worth stopping for.

The oaks are the famous thing, or rather the claim about them. Local tradition holds that timber from Cratloe Wood was used to roof Westminster Hall in London in 1393, and again to floor the Royal Palace in Amsterdam in the seventeenth century. Historians have pulled at both threads and found them looser than the legend suggests - there is no contemporary documentary proof for either. What is certain is that the wood exists, that it is old, and that for centuries people have felt it was worth a story.

Cratloe Woods House is more verifiable. One of the very few remaining thatched country houses in Ireland still occupied by its original family, the Stafford-O'Briens have held it through the entire modern arc of Irish history. It sits off the road, low-slung and whitewashed, looking nothing like a house that has carried that kind of continuity. It does not advertise. Check before you go.

The GAA club is the other reason Cratloe is known beyond the hills. In 2014 they won both the Clare Senior Hurling Championship and the Clare Senior Football Championship in the same year - the first club in Clare to complete that double since 1929. A village of 700 people doing what most clubs with ten times the population have never managed.

Population

~700

Walk score

Forest park loops, 20 minutes from the village

Coords

52.6847° N, 8.7547° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The oaks

A forest with a claim on two famous roofs.

The legend says Cratloe's oaks were felled in 1393 to roof Westminster Hall in London, and again three centuries later for the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. Both claims are disputed by historians. The trees are there. Make of it what you will.

Stories & lore → 02 The manor

One of Ireland's last thatched gentry houses, still lived in.

Cratloe Woods House has been in the Stafford-O'Brien family for centuries. A whitewashed thatched country house that survived landlordism, the Land Acts, and the twentieth century in the same family's hands. Visitors by appointment only.

Stories & lore → 03 The club

2014 Clare Senior Hurling and Football double champions.

In 2014 Cratloe GAA won both the Clare Senior Hurling Championship and the Clare Senior Football Championship - the first club in Clare to complete that double since 1929. A village of 700 people. The cups are in the clubhouse.

Stories & lore →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

An oak legend with loose timber

The Westminster Hall claim

The tradition says that in 1393, when Richard II ordered the repair of Westminster Hall in London, the great roof timbers came from Cratloe Wood. The same claim - different century, different building - attaches to the Royal Palace on Dam Square in Amsterdam. Historians have examined both and found no conclusive documentary evidence for either. That hasn't stopped the story, which is old enough to count as local heritage regardless of provenance. The trees in Cratloe Wood are genuinely ancient sessile oaks. Whether or not they roofed a palace, they are worth walking under.

The thatched house that stayed

Cratloe Woods House

Cratloe Woods House is one of a small handful of thatched country houses in Ireland still occupied by the family that built it. The Stafford-O'Briens have held it through the Cromwellian plantation, the Penal Laws, the Land War, and the land redistribution of the early twentieth century - a span of Irish history that cleared most of the old gentry from their land entirely. The house is not large, not grand in the usual sense, and not open to the public on a regular basis. It is a private home that happens to have survived when almost everything like it did not.

Clare Senior Hurling and Football champions in the same year

The 2014 double

In 2014 Cratloe GAA won both the Clare Senior Hurling Championship and the Clare Senior Football Championship - the first club in Clare to complete that double since 1929. They then reached the Munster Club Hurling final that winter, where they lost to Kilmallock in extra time. The hurling achievement brought them to within one game of the All-Ireland series. The football championship, by itself, would have been a story in a village of 700 people. Both in the same year is something the club carries with something quieter than swagger.

The view the road does not advertise

Woodcock Hill

Woodcock Hill sits above the tree line at the top of the Cratloe Wood trail system. The view from the summit takes in Limerick city to the south, the Shannon estuary spreading west, and on clear days the mountains of Kerry on the far side of the water. It is not a hard walk - a couple of kilometres on forest track - and it is the kind of thing that makes arriving in Clare from the Limerick direction feel like it has a point.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Cratloe Wood Forest Loop The main looped trail through the ancient sessile oak wood. Starts from the forest park car park off the R462. Well-maintained track, some elevation, and you pass through the oldest section of the oak stand on the upper leg. Quiet on weekdays.

5 km loopdistance

1.5-2 hourstime

Woodcock Hill Summit Route Extension of the forest loop that climbs to the Woodcock Hill viewpoint. The path steepens above the tree line. The view over Limerick and the Shannon estuary is worth the extra thirty minutes. Start early if the weather is doubtful - the summit catches cloud before the valley does.

7 km returndistance

2-2.5 hourstime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The oak wood comes into leaf in late April. If you want to see what the forest looks like before the canopy closes, May is the window. Trails quiet, ground dry enough after a decent spell.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Cratloe doesn't get the coastal crowds. The wood is shaded and cool, the trails accessible, and Bunratty is ten minutes away if you want the castle or a proper pub. Fine all summer.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The oaks turn slowly - more amber than gold, more wood-smell than spectacle. October is the best month for colour. Trails empty, light low and good through the canopy.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The wood closes in. Paths can be muddy after rain and the upper section of the Woodcock Hill route is exposed. Fine for a short walk on a dry day; less fine if the forecast is wet.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Driving through on the N18 and calling it done

The village on the main road is a junction and a few houses. The wood and the viewpoint are up the hill, not visible from the car. If you don't turn off, you haven't been.

Expecting a pub-and-food village

Cratloe is not set up for tourism. There is no restaurant strip, no heritage centre cafe. Eat in Limerick or Bunratty and come here for the walk.

Treating the oaks legend as established fact

The Westminster Hall and Amsterdam Palace claims are local tradition, not documented history. Enjoy them as legend - which is an honest category - rather than testing them against a guidebook that presents them as settled.

Getting there.

By car

Limerick city to Cratloe is 8km on the N18, about 12 minutes. Bunratty is 6km in the other direction. The forest park car park is signed off the R462 above the village. The road up is narrow.

By bus

Bus Éireann services on the Limerick-Ennis corridor stop near Cratloe. The village is on the N18 corridor - check the 343 and 51 routes. Not the most convenient stop for the forest; a car makes the walk significantly easier.

By train

No train. Limerick Colbert is the nearest station, 15 minutes by car.

By air

Shannon Airport (SNN) is 25km, about 25 minutes. A logical stop en route between Shannon and Limerick.