Rare ancient rainforest in Northern Ireland set to come back to life

A rare ancient rainforest set to come back to life 6 days ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Aimée Bell BBC News NI Ulster Wildlife Rosemary Mulholland from Ulster Wildlife at the site of the restoration project in Omagh Did you know that Northern Ireland has its very own rainforest? Not the tropical kind you may be thinking of, but an ancient and precious woodland known as a temperate rainforest. A restorative programme run by Ulster Wildlife is working hard to bring ancient woodlands back to life over the next 100 years. Also known as the Atlantic or Celtic rainforest, it is one of the UK and Ireland's rarest, most biodiverse and most threatened habitats. Ulster Wildlife Thousands of plastic tubes can be seen which are used to plant the trees at the site at Lenamore Wood in Omagh Just 0.04% of Northern Ireland's total land area is ancient woodland, according to the Woodland Trust. These forests are crucial to the environment and the ecosystems that live within them. Rosemary Mulholland, Head of Nature Recovery with Ulster Wildlife, is part of the team that has embarked on an ambitious 100-year restoration programme to restore temperate rainforests. Almost 30,000 native trees of Irish provenance, such as oak, alder and rowan, have been planted on the 41-acre site which is situated at Lenamore Wood, near Gortin in Omagh. The first trees were planted in February and March 2026. The project carries significant costs, but is supported by Aviva, which has committed around £38 million towards the restoration of lost temperate rainforests across the UK. It will take about a year before we see the tips of the trees sprouting through the plastic tubes, however, it will be at least 100 years before the trees are properly grown. When asked how she feels about never seeing the project fully finished, she said: "It is sad, but in a way it's a great privilege, isn't it, to just be able to take this land and turn it into a habitat that is now largely lost." John Martin, the Woodland Trust's NI director What is a temperate rainforest? John Martin who is the director of the Woodland Trust in Northern Ireland said temperate rainforests are "usually characterised by native tree species such as oak, birch, alder and hazel". "They've lots of humidity supporting mosses, lichens, and complex woodland structures, including ravines, rivers and rocky outcrops." He said they occur in areas of high rainfall, mild temperatures and a strong ocean influence. "They deliver critical environmental services, including biodiversity protection, so essentially nature protection and carbon storage." How have these natural habitats become so endangered? Martin explained that these rainforests have been around for centuries. "If you go back, following the last ice age, as the climate warmed, trees gradually colonised Ireland and then by around 8,000 to 9,000 years ago, most of the island was probably covered in dense woodland." He said these forests were dominated by oak, hazel,