Carnmoney Hill - Newtownabbey Borough Council

Long term intentions

Long Term Intentions and Vision: the Objectives and Milestones over the next 25 years are:

That NBC and WT intend to adhere to the management plan and agree to manage it as a landscape mosaic for the:

- Access routes to the hill.

· Awareness, recreation & interpretation- to develop awareness of the site through interpretation and PR activity.

· Biodiversity conservation by habitat management & renovation.

· Establishment of planting of native woods/linking and buffering older/ancient woods -through the 25 ha planting linkage.

- The key features are public access, ancient woodland, non-woodland semi natural habitat and historic features.

The long-term objective is to manage the site primarily for conservation of the ancient woodland and non-woodland semi natural habitat by sensitive routing of the access, removal of non-native species e.g. laurel, beech and larch.

Over 5 years the upper grassland, lowland meadows and wetland will be improved for biodiversity.

After 10 years the new plantings will establish woodland on the lower slopes thus buffering exisiting ancient woodland, stabilising steep slopes and linking the older woodlands together.

Over 25 years and long term the aim is for a diverse mosaic of high forest, meadows, wetland, open rides, mature hedgerows, interspersed with the public access paths.

Ancient Woodland

Ancient woodland is one of the most important habitats. It is hugely important in terms of biodiversity and this is one of the few ancient woods left on the Belfast Hills. The 29 ha will be managed through a minimum intervention regime. New planting will buffer the existing ancient woodland. In addition two open areas will be left to naturally regenerate - these are located adjacent to the well feature in compartment 1 and the other located at the most northerly access to the site within compartment 3b.

Semi natural open ground habitat

25 ha will be retained within the site, primarily as an important habitat in its own right, and to maintain the patchwork landscape when viewed from outside the site. This was considered an important factor in the woodland creation design. The ideal management of these areas will be through grazing cattle which create a diversity in the sward height and allow for smaller areas of scrub to encroach, adding to the biodiversity value of these areas. Through grazing the biodiversity potential of these areas will be maximised, however too low an intensity of grazing would result in an excessive increase in the level of scrub habitats at the expense of the grassland and would be detrimental. Total scrub cover should not exceed 10-15% of the total meadow areas. It is envisaged that the grasslands will be a transient mixture of grass of varying sward height and various stages of scrub.

Public access

Provisions on site for public access will ultimately depend on the level of use on the site and factors such as vandalism. As a flagship site in Northern Ireland, it it likely that use will be high. A path through the site was created in 2003, and this will be maintained for both public and management access. The path was both surfaced and unsurfaced. Surfaced paths will be left to grass over. Paths that are not surfaced are intended to be informal and blend in to the surroundings. Where these encounter steep gradients, steps and/or hand rails are provided and maintained to aid access throughout the site for as many different user groups as possible. On site information will be maintained as appropriate, as will features such as seats and direction posts.

A car park which is situated on O'Neill Road, next to Stanley Racing will allow for 10 cars to be parked. Disabled parking is also available.

Archaeological Features

The old limestone quarries and lime kilns at Altnacreeve & Dunnaney may be interpreted in the long term, along with the rath/souterrain in Rathfern Wood and the earth fort at Dunnaney (not in the project area). All of these features are to be conserved with the help of the EHS Built Heritage & their archaeologists.