The south bank of the Foyle near Limavady has been recently opened as a wildlife reserve and twinned with a similar project at Inch Island in Donegal (where there are also a number of geocaches). There is much to see here in the way of wild birds and in the winter large colonies of Whooper Swans and Greylag Geese can be seen resting in the reclaimed fields lying behind the sea defense wall.
Walking along the wall itself provides you with spectacular views out along the Foyle and across to the Donegal Hills. In winter as the winds whip up and the waves grow bigger, framed by angry clouds scudding along the hill tops, the scenary grows even more beautiful and wild. By the car parking area at Ballymacran there is a wooden shelter with a single wall facing the water and whilst it has no roof it gives a calmer spot to watch the surroundings.
Down the gravel path the footbridge at the centre of this cache now links the Ballymacran and Ballykelly Banks as you cross the Burnfoot River. Before you go down this path and as you stand at the carpark, look out at the river to your left, towards Derry/Londonderry and at low tide, about a hundred yards from the shore, you will see the remains of a crashed WWII Corsair fighter plane. There is a cache left on the other side of the bank (GC4EKYG) by page3cows to mark the aircrafts history.
For further information on the Inch and Foyle wildlife reserves you can check out the leaflet at inchandfoyle.com.
The cache is a magnetic nano. You do not have to leave the bridge to retrieve it. Please replace it exactly back where you find it as this cache has been muggled a number of times already.
The Little Bridges series was started by Stanthews in 2009 to highlight small footbridges in remote parts of Wiltshire. Since then the series has been expanded by others all over the country and starting to spread fast, Damian from Winter Foxes has created and updates a list of cachers who has found 10 or more little bridges and can be found here, if you would like to add to the series, please contact Stan on stanthews@aol.com and he will give you a number for your bridge, to qualify, the bridge must be a foot bridge too small for vehicles, please make sure your title exactly matches “Little Bridges # xx then name” including spaces so it will get picked up and added to Damian’s list. There are souvenirs available for those who find and/or plant Little Bridges caches on Damiens site.