My first impressions of the Lee are from Sunday drives with my family to Farran Woods. The Lee Valley provided a chance to escape from the pressures of homework and growing up. Farran Woods offered an idealised world where castles and fights were dreamt up, bows and arrows made, and victories against imaginary foes were won. On those sunny days, the excitement of creating and defending an imaginary fortress was preferable to trudging into school every morning.

I remember the radio on those Sunday afternoons, turned up to hear the results of the Cork GAA team winning and losing, and the associated cheers and sighs of disbelief as if the world would be a better place if Cork won rather than lost! Farran, like Gougane Barra, is another of Cork’s sacred sites and it abounds with opportunities to engage in traditional family activities.

During my fieldwork on a summer's day in June, two children were playing on the swings and slides, supervised by their grandparents. A larger group were having a barbeque. Several names were carved into the picnic tables. A dingy floated aimlessly in Inniscarra Reservoir. A father and his two sons were fishing. Something tugged at the father's fishing line. An eel was caught and the father was dismayed, but one of the sons piped up with 'well done dad'. He was a hero and this was an amazing adventure.

The forest, which is 54 hectares in extent, once formed a mere fragment of the vast Farran estate which was owned by a Captain Clarke – of tobacco products fame. The demesne passed on to Captain Mathews who converted some of the pasture land to forest. Being a keen sportsman, the Captain, as well as planting conifers and broadleaves planted some carefully sited clumps of broom, laurel and rhododendron to provide cover for game birds. These are still to be found in Farran wood.

Farran Woods contains a large duck pond and wildlife enclosure. Originally a 'flighting pond' it was greatly extended in the 1970s and a number of species of duck and geese were added. The collection includes Mallard, Teal, Widgeon, and Shoveler duck along with Greylag, White Fronted, Barnacle, Snow and Egyptian geese. Red and Fallow deer are to be found in the enclosure which is surrounded by a gravel path thus providing clear views of the wildlife. An old shooting lodge adjacent to the wildlife enclosure has been converted into a woodland ecology display centre.

Farran Woods is also the home of the National Rowing Centre. The first rowing regatta was held on Inniscarra Reservoir in 1975. At that time, still- and lake-water coursing were becoming popular. In 1974, Shandon Boat and Rowing Club wished to mark its centenary the following year with something different from the norm. Mick O'Callaghan was Captain of the Club at the time.