The history of the Gortin Glen Forest Park is to feature in the latest episode of UTV series Mahon’s Way on Sunday night.
Fermanagh native Joe Mahon takes to the screen to chat to some Co Tyrone folk about the history of the Gortin village and the emergence of the popular forest park in the 1960s.
The council owned park saw a boom in visitors following the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic, and local volunteer Sean Harpur from Friends of the Glens is one of those featured in the episode.
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It will air on UTV on Sunday 21 February at 7pm, and is the latest in the series which also featured a man from Stewartstown who was driving the car in which JFK was shot in Dallas in 1963.
A description for the latest episode tells of when the park first opened in 1967.
“In this episode Joe Mahon visits the village of Gortin in County Tyrone, but he begins his journey high up in the hills above the village,” it says.
“In 1967 Gortin Glen Forest Park became the first of its kind to be opened to the general public. Suddenly over three and a half thousand acres of recently-created habitats were there to be explored and appreciated and a whole range of creatures that might otherwise have had nowhere to live were discovered to have colonised it.
“Many of these are nocturnal and not always easy to spot, but Julie Corry, the biodiversity officer for Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, has taken steps to ensure that, if children come to the forest park to see animals, they will not be disappointed.
“Before descending to the village Joe meets Sean Harpur, a local man who has rambled this forest since early childhood, and Sean tells the story of a very special tree which was planted here over 50 years ago and then completely forgotten - until plans were laid out to build a new play area for children.
“Back down on the banks of the Owenkillew River, Joe hears from Paddy Fitzgerald of the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies, about the mixed fortunes of Scottish settlers who came to this part of Tyrone in past centuries.
"Many of them decided to seek their fortunes across the Atlantic and elsewhere, creating, in effect, an international network of entrepreneurs all linked back to this part of the world.”
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