Conservation Lands
Collins Woodlot
As a part of the Falmouth Moraine Trail that extends from Route 151 in North Falmouth to Long Pond, the 49-acre Collins Woodlot offers a variety of features. The scenic pine bowl kettle hole is just one example of glacial topography. The maze of trails often follows the ridges, providing views of the treetops and even Buzzards Bay. Most of the trails are lined with trailing arbutus, or mayflower, which is the state flower, and teaberry or wintergreen.
Just south of the moraine trail’s intersection with Brick Kiln Road, follow the trail — clearly marked with Falmouth Conservation Land signs — to the cathedral pines, a majestic grove of white pine. The trail leads to the town forest and on to Long Pond. To head north along the moraine trail, access is just east of the intersection of Blacksmith Shop and Service Roads. Look for the white blazes that mark the trail, just off the edge of the road.
The Collins Woodlot was part of the first omnibus land package put together by The 300 Committee for town approval in 1986. Although there is no trace of it today, a golf course was created there in the late 1920s and closed in 1938. Golfers paid 50 cents to play the nine-hole course. George Collins, a long-time summer resident of West Falmouth, was one of the managers of the course (and later became a professor of art history and archaeology at Columbia University). He bought the property in 1961.
The trails are off Service Road, from Brick Kiln Road. Approximately ½ mile up the hill on the right, a dirt turnout has room for two or three cars to park. More parking is available just off the road leading to the Falmouth Wastewater Facility, at the corner of Service Road and Blacksmith Shop Road. There are two access points: one at the large conservation land sign at the dirt turnout, and another, just north, where small white arrows are painted on the road.
