The Gruffalo Trail at Colin Glen Forest Park, Belfast

At the heart of Colin Glen Forest Park in Belfast, you can actually live inside a book instead of reading it by exploring the Gruffalo Trail! The amazing characters book “Grufallo” written by Julia Donaldson and the illustrations are done by Axel Scheffler is brought to life and now you can go see the beautifully and professionally sculptured characters around you. Have a one of a kind experience with family and children around the magic characters and the nice weather at the Gruffallo Trail at Colen Glen Forest Park in Belfast.

Colin Glen Forest Park, Belfast

Colin Glen Forest Park, One of the most attractive destinations in the southwestern area of Belfast, mainly in the heart of the Belfast hills. The stunning wood-made park has a lot of kids’ activities. The various activities include rope activities, kayaking, mountain biking, archery, team building activities, and other different educational programs in addition to a magnificent view of Belfast from higher points and beautiful walks around the wooded park.

Colin Park is considered as Belfast’s Green Lung. Lately, the park is the first public park in the whole area of Northern Ireland to be given the Green Flag Award, this award is a National Benchmark for the quality of parks and green areas.

A part of the park’s spirit is that it has become the perfect area for both individuals and families to have a playful and adventurous time to take a break from the stressful daily life.

What is the Deal with “The Gruffalo”?!

Written by Julia Donaldson, a renowned writer of many children picture books, The Gruffalo is an award-winning children book which sold more than 13 million copies. The book is telling a story of a clever mouse and his journey in a European forest. The Gruffalo was also turned into many plays and an animated movie which was nominated later for an Oscar.

The Gruffalo’s Plot

The famous picture book is about a mouse taking a journey in a European forest where he meets different animals, an owl, a fox, and a snake. All the animals he meets are intending to trick him into going home with them and eat him, but the mouse was smart enough to know how to escape all the dangers.

In order to avoid the dangers, the mouse tells every animal that he’s meeting his friend, The Gruffalo, for dinner. According to the mouse, The Gruffalo is a huge mix-breed monster who is a half grizzly bear and half buffalo. The Gruffalo’s most-liked food is the animal the muse talking to (the fox, the owl or the snake). The whole Gruffalo story then scares the animal and they run away. The mouse then starts to make fun of them saying “Silly old fox/owl/snake, doesn’t he know? there’s no such thing as a gruffalo!”

After tricking all the animals and getting rid of them, the mouse meets an actual Gruffalo with all the details he was telling the other animals. The Gruffalo tells the mouse that he’s going to eat him, but the clever mouse knew how to even deceive the scary monster telling him that all the animals in the forest fear him (the mouse). The Gruffalo was impressed by the mouse’s confidence and decided to walk with him around the forest. All the animals who wanted to eat the mouse were actually scared when they saw him walking with the Gruffalo. And every time this happens, the Gruffalo gets more impressed with how powerful the mouse is. The funny part about the whole story is when the mouse threatened to eat the Gruffalo which escaped just like the rest of the animals. The Gruffalo story is borrowed from a popular Chinese story.

The Amazing Gruffalo Trail – Bringing The Famous Story To Life

Every animal from The Gruffalo book was turned into a sculpture by the sculptor Andrew Mclntyre to be placed in the park creating a unique experience there for visitors. Imagine reliving the story of The Gruffalo! Your walk around the trail will take around 45 minutes, this includes the whole walk to The Gruffalo and coming back from it. However, this also depends on how much time you are going to take to take pictures with the characters.

You don’t need to worry about the expenses as the whole trail experience is free. ٍSince the experience is suitable for every age ranges and every taste, you need to gather up your family or kids and go there for them to enjoy the unique experience and for yourself to enjoy the beauty and the weather of the park, especially with the great view of Colin River, and maybe a cup of tea or coffee at the centre of the park.

The walk to the trail begins with the Gruffalo Archway passing through the Sky Trek path leading you to the area where you can find the characters: the clever mouse, the foolish fox, the owl, the snake and the huge 8 feet tall sculpture of The Gruffalo! Due to its fame, the park receives around 1,000 person every day. With this number of visitors, the Colin Glen Forest Park is considered as the most visited parks in Belfast.

If you’re bored or looking for a unique adventure, the park is a perfect destination. Take your family there to experience the fun trail characters or take your friends to take some fun and social media worthy pictures.

Check out another video of the trail below:

Check out more about the Gruffalo trail and what else there is to do at Colin Glen Forest Park on their website. Have you ever been there? or have we made you want to visit soon? we would love to hear your stories 🙂

Also, check out some of our other blog posts of places that we have visited that you might like: Narnia Trail, Ulster American Folk Park, Redburn County Park, Castlewellan Forest Park, Crawfordsburn, Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, Mount Stewart House and Gardens.