Castle Neck River Reservation

We welcome visitors with a range of mobility levels to take in the view, observe wildlife, and enjoy nature from the bench a short distance up the trail. From the knoll, looking to the north, the view expands across Maplecroft Farm, all the way to Heartbreak Hill. Looking to the south, in the distance are the white pines atop Willow Hill at the Donovan Reservation in Hamilton.

Wide swaths of prime farmland soils support active hayfields — home to nesting Bobolinks and Eastern Meadowlarks from May through July. The fields transition to woods, and eventually to the river’s headwaters, where you can find feeding herons, egrets, and waterfowl. It is one of the best birding locations in Essex County, and is listed as an eBird hotspot.

Pawtucket cornfields lined Argilla Road when it was a trail used by Indigenous people, and Agawam Village was in the crook of the river where it joins Essex Bay. Masconomet conducted diplomacy on Castle Hill and had a fort on Castle Island in the Castle Neck River. The fort defended the village and cornfields against enemy raiders from the north. Masconomet and his wife were buried at Sagamore Hill in South Hamilton, making the reservation a history corridor as well as a nature corridor between Maplecroft Farm and the John J. Donovan Reservation/Sagamore Hill Conservation Area.