Kittery Town Forest Trail

Entrance to Kittery Town Forest/ SeacoastNH.com
SEACOAST WALKS
Kittery, Maine

Just a hop, skip and jump from the dangerous, dizzying traffic of the outlet malls you’ll find a quite trail owned by the citizens of Kittery. Look carefully and you’ll find evidence that this is preserved strip of forest has a long history, now overgrown, but visible in the mix of trees, scattered foundations and old graves.

Kittery Town Forest Trail
Details: Easy trails, one and 2.5 miles through woods and marsh area, two historic cemeteries, pond, interesting trees and wild life.
Directions: Coming from Portsmouth, take a right down Haley Road, just after the stretch of outlet malls. Look for the parking area and small cemetery about a mile down Haley Road on the left.
Resources: Trail map posted, two marked trails.
Rules: Carry in, carry out, no fires, stay on trail, open dawn to dusk, no hunting on Sundays.
Dogs: OK with leash.
Official Kittery Town web site

There’s a nice little sketched map of this trail in the brochure posted at the trail head, but whenever we’ve been by, there were no copies to carry away. Just to the right of the trail head at the parking area is the old Kittery town pound, a rock fence once used to contain stray animals, next to a small cemetery. That’s how you can spot the small parking spot just a short way down Haley Road from the buzzing traffic of the mall.

The map offers two choices. We tend to take the shorter trail that runs one mile through a nicely forested area once part of an orchard to Lewis Road. The foundation of the old Town Farm workhouse is still visible. The trail runs parallel to Route 1, but there is no sense, while in the woods, that a zillion tourists are furiously buying discounted outlet goods nearby. The trail is clearly marked, easy to walk up and down some gentle slopes and along old stone walls.

The Quimby Trail is 2.5 miles and takes in a bit of wetlands and a small pond as it squiggles around through the town forest to connect with the the Haley- Lewis Trail. But all trekkers should go just far enough down Quimby Trail to see the Haley cemetery. This drew us because we know the Haley Cemetery on Smuttymose Island very well. This Kittery cemetery plot is also surrounded by a stone perimeter, but has no marked standing stones. The tombstone of Capt. John R. Haley (died 1854) lies flat and embedded into the soil. The Quimby Trail has a few steep spots, and during our visit, they were deeply marked with horseshoe prints. We saw a woodpecker and a garter snake during the last trip and a curious man-made lean-to during our last walk just before fall.

According to the trail guide (we could read a battered display copy through the glassed-in sign) the Kittery Forest is 72-acres with diverse stands of trees. Including birch, oak, maple and evergreens. The Conservation Commission manages the town land. -- JDR

Cemetey near Kittery Town Forest on Haley Road / SeacoastNH.com

Parking area at trail head in Kittery / SeacoastNH.com

Kittery Town Forest Trail / J. Dennis Robinson on SeacoastNH.com

Mysterious lean-to in the Kittery woods / SeacoastNH.com

Haley Family Cemetery in Kittery, Maine / J. Dennis Robinson

Capt. John R. Haley tomb in Kittery Town Forest / J. Dennis Robinson

A READER RESPONDS

I absolutely love your newsletters! Having grown up in Kittery in the 1930's I am amazed at the changes that have taken place. Your article on the Town Forest was nice. When I grew up next door, a large farmhouse and a huge barn, looking like two connected barns stood there. There was a nice field between the town farm building and the Lewis's farm next door. The animal pound was just about gone - it was restored by the Conservation people in the 1990, I think. The cemetery beside the pound is a Lewis family cemetery, and I think you show some grave stones (Osborne) from this cemetery. Lewis decendants still live in the farmhouse next door.
One of the Lewis family married a Haley and we are related.
The Town Forest is a wonderful place to walk. Thank you for putting this article in.
Sincerely, Priscilla Lewis Gavel

News about Portsmouth from Fosters.com