Ballykelly Forest Park is located west of the Plantation Village of the same name which was developed by the London Company of Fishmongers. At one stage it was known as the Camman Wood and was a renown haunt for highway men praying on the travellers on the coach road from Coleraine to Derry/Londonderry. It was Northern Ireland's first state owned forest.
The village played an important role in World War II with RAF Ballykelly opening in 1941 as a site for RAF Coastal Command. It was one of the most westerly airfields the Allies had to assist in the Battle for the Atlantic. The site later transferred to the Army, who subsequently left as part of the reduction of military garrisons in The Province but not before it had momentary media fame when a Ryanair commercial flight landed at the airstrip on the 29th March 2006, mistaking it for the nearby City of Derry Airport.
The forest has the usual gravel trails running through it but generally more interesting are the unofficial paths criss-crossing it used by both walkers and mountain bikers alike, so listen out!! The caches are designed to be something a little different so be careful but enjoy.
This cache is a camouflage bison. The trees may affect the coordinates but the GZ should be fairly obvious from the hint.
For the series in general I would advise old clothes and waterproof footwear (and possibly over-trousers) and a sense of humour as a minimum. The going includes water obstacles, some climbing and the forest tends to be muddy in places.
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.