The Giant's Lair - Slieve Gullion

I had initially planned a lazy Sunday but when mum suggested a trip to Slieve Gullion to hunt for fairies I jumped at the chance! All 7 of us gathered together (in a two car convoy) and headed down the motorway towards Newry. Just over an hour later and a nervous moment when I thought I had missed the turning (for any of you driving from Belfast it is the last exit before you cross the border sign posted Slieve Gullion Forest Park) we arrived at the car park which was extremely busy but there were two available disabled spaces beside each other, handy as we had mum and granny with us; if the car park is full there is a park and ride facility available from Johnny Murphy's Bar and Restaurant (clearly signposted).
First stop for me was the public toilet, unfortunately I was out of luck because the ladies were all out of order, there were two available porta-loos and a disabled toilet but as you can imagine the queue was rather long!!!
After a pit stop at the ice cream van for a 99 we headed off to start the Fairy Trail through the Giant's Lair.

After walking through the Big Red Door you arrive in Fairy Land with various little houses, a washing line and even a rope bridge! The houses are cleverly themed with the Tooth fairies house shaped like a tooth, the cobblers a boot, the music fairy a guitar and so on.  There are lots of little houses and doors to explore and other visitors have left the fairies dummies and coins as gifts! Unfortunately the fairies were shy so we continued on with the trail, which took us past more wee houses, a huge metal storybook, a giant witch carved from a tree, and a giant table and chair (the chair is overturned so I think the giant heard us coming and ran away).  At one point we heard wind chimes but couldn't tell where they were coming from, so we were all convinced that the fairies were having a party (we found a large set of wind chimes further on up the trail). The path is pretty steep in places and as you are exploring in and around the trees I would advise wearing wellies or shoes you don't mind getting dirty as it is very muddy underfoot!
I also noticed that halfway round the path my phone changed to a Southern network (Meteor) so be careful of roaming charges.
The path is about a mile long and I would advise starting at the path closest to the courtyard (there is an information board here) as it is a more gradual climb, the other end is much steeper and a family we met on the way down were struggling with their buggy!
We had two disabled visitors with us and there was no way any of us could have pushed them around the trail on their manual wheelchairs, luckily they are happy to wait in the car and read their kindles.
At the end of the trail there is a large play park which my nephew would have happily stayed in for hours, instead he got 20 mins before we had to head back home.
(Selection of photos below)

As well as the Giant's Lair there is a Scenic Forest drive and various other walking trails which we didn't do! This a free day out and if you got the weather you could easily spend a few hours here with a picnic, just be wary of the mud and the steep paths if bringing a buggy!!

 Now its time to plan my next trip, until next time....