Drum Manor Forest Play Park

A playground with a forest wrapped round it

Most forest playgrounds are an afterthought — a couple of swings near the car park to keep children quiet while the adults look at trees. Drum Manor's is the opposite. It's a full-sized climbing playground, and somebody had the good sense to put it inside the estate's old walled garden, so the whole thing sits in a stone-walled room with the forest rising behind it.

The tall rope pyramid is what children run at first — a timber A-frame strung with climbing nets, ladders and rings that goes up high enough to feel like an achievement. Beside it are timber towers joined by raised walkways with slides dropping off them, then swings, a seesaw, in-ground trampolines set flush into the surface, and a lower frame for the ones who aren't ready for the pyramid yet. The red and green safety surfacing marks out the zones, so you can see at a glance where your smallest is.

Then there's the rest of Drum Manor, and this is where the day gets long. Waymarked trails of different lengths loop round the forest and a wildfowl lake, some of them with wheelchair-accessible sections. The walled garden alongside was replanted from 1977 as a butterfly habitat, and there's a Japanese garden, an arboretum and ornamental ponds. The ruined manor house stands a short walk from the car park, roofless and gothic and well worth the detour. Drum Manor is quieter and smaller than Tollymore or Castlewellan, which is exactly why families like it — you can park within sight of everything and let them run.

Rope climbing pyramid Timber towers & slides In-ground trampolines Toddler frame Toilets at the car park Walled butterfly garden Waymarked forest trails Wildfowl lake

There's a charge to get in:

Drum Manor is a Forest Service site, so you pay to bring the car in — £5 for the day on the 2026/27 rates, with the playground and the trails included in that. If NI forest parks are a regular thing for your family, the annual car permit works out at £40, or £25 at the concession rate. Rates change, so check before you set off.

What to bring

🥪A picnicThere's no café or shop on site, and there are picnic areas throughout the park.

👟Sturdy shoesThe playground is on made surfacing, but the forest trails and the lake path are not.

🧥LayersSperrins-edge weather — a coat means you get the trails as well as the swings.

🔭BinocularsThere's a wildfowl lake here, and the kids will get more out of it with something to look through.

Everything before you go

Cost

£5 a car for the day on the Forest Service 2026/27 rates. The playground and the trails are included — there's no separate charge. An annual car permit is £40, or £25 concession.

Opening

Every day from 10am until sunset.

Best for ages

Up to about 14 — Forest Service lists the play area as suitable to that age, and the climbing kit is sized for it.

What's there

Rope-and-timber climbing pyramid, timber towers with raised walkways and slides, swings, seesaw, in-ground trampolines and a lower toddler frame, on safety surfacing inside the walled garden.

Also in the park

Waymarked forest and lake trails, walled butterfly garden, Japanese garden, arboretum, ornamental ponds, the manor ruins, picnic areas, and a camping and touring caravan site.

Toilets

At the forest car park, beside the play area.

Food

No shop or café on site. Cookstown, about five minutes' drive, has cafés and supermarkets. Bring a picnic and use the picnic areas.

Parking

Large day-visitor car park, included in the £5 entry, right beside the playground and the toilets.

Accessibility

The play area is on level ground beside the car park, and some of the waymarked trails have wheelchair-accessible sections.

Dogs

Forest Service doesn't publish a specific rule for this site. Dogs on leads are the norm across NI forest parks — keep them out of the fenced play area.

How long to allow

One to two hours at the playground, half a day with the trails and the gardens.

Address

Drum Road, off the A505 Cookstown to Omagh road, about three miles west of Cookstown, County Tyrone.

Contact

Forest Service — 028 6634 3165.

Questions

Before you go

How much does it cost?

£5 a car for the day on the Forest Service 2026/27 rates, and that covers the playground, the trails and the gardens. Prices change, so check before you set off.

Is there a café?

No. There's no shop or café on site, so bring a picnic — there are picnic areas through the park. Cookstown is about five minutes away for anything else.

Are there toilets?

Yes, at the forest car park, right beside the play area.

What ages does the playground suit?

Forest Service lists it as suitable up to about 14. There's a lower frame for toddlers, and the rope pyramid is sized for older children.

What time is it open?

Every day from 10am until sunset.

Is it worth staying beyond the playground?

Yes. The manor ruins are a short walk away, the walled butterfly garden and the Japanese garden are on the same loop, and the trails round the wildfowl lake take about an hour at a child's pace.

Can we bring the dog?

There's no specific published rule for Drum Manor. Dogs on leads are the norm across NI forest parks; keep them out of the fenced play area.

Getting there

Drum Manor Forest Park is on Drum Road, off the A505 Cookstown to Omagh road, about three miles west of Cookstown. The day-visitor car park sits right beside the playground and the toilets. Tap below for turn-by-turn directions.

Directions on Google Maps See it on our map Official website

Phone 028 6634 3165 to check anything before you travel.

Nearby

Make more of the day

Drum Manor Forest ParkThe full guide to the forest park The best play parks in NISee the full list More days out in CookstownEverything else close by Open the mapFind what's near you

The story

About the park

Drum Manor is an eighteenth-century demesne, once the seat of the Close family, and the house at the centre of it is now a roofless shell. What's left is genuinely striking — gothic windows open to the sky, a stone porch, ivy taking the upper walls — and it's used often enough for wedding photographs. The estate around it passed into forestry, and the mix of old parkland planting and later forest is what gives the place its character: mature specimen trees and ornamental ponds sitting beside plain working woodland.

The walled garden was replanted from 1977 with the specific aim of making a butterfly habitat, and the shrub, butterfly and Japanese gardens are still the part of Drum Manor that gets written about. It's a small arboretum's worth of planting in a place most people drive past on the way to somewhere better known.

The playground came later, and it came out of a deliberate decision. Mid Ulster District Council put £35,000 of upgrade works into the Drum Manor play park as part of its five-year play strategy — one of a run of investments across the district aimed at making a handful of playgrounds worth driving to rather than leaving every village with the same three swings. Putting it inside the walled garden was the flourish that made it memorable.