Welcome to the All-Person Gilmore Pond Woodland Park’s Nature Sensory Trail, created by the Westborough Community Land Trust (WCLT). It was built to be enjoyed by everyone, including those with mobility and sensory challenges. The trail makes a one-third mile loop around the pond. Six stations encourage using your senses — sight, smell, hearing, and touch — to enjoy nature from different perspectives.

Follow the rope hand rail, past different terrain, woods, and plants. You will find the stations marked by a bead on the rope:

• 1: Welcome Station
• 2: Station at the Dam
• 3: Bird Station
• 4: Bridge Station
• 5: Forest Station
• 6: Wildflower Station.

Scan the QR code at each station to access the audio tour and additional information that encourages you to use your senses and learn about the diverse wildlife — plants, trees, birds, reptiles, and other animals that thrive here.

A Short History of Gilmore Pond

The 2.6-acre Gilmore Pond is part of the headwaters of Jackstraw Brook. It was dug in the 1930s by Howard Gilmore as an irrigation pond for Fay Mountain Farm, the largest apple orchard in Westborough through the 1970s. Gilmore Pond was the site of picnics, swimming, skating parties, plus the best bass fishing in Westborough.

Gilmore Pond may be most famous as the birthplace of the Westborough High School ice hockey team. In the late 1950s, with Dick Gilmore as its coach, the team began scrimmaging on the winter ice at Gilmore Pond.

Fay Mountain Farm was sold to Quicks’ Orchard in 1970. In June 2003, 12.96 acres of open space land were conveyed to the Westborough Community Land Trust as part of the Orchard Hill development agreement.

Creating the Woodland Park

Creating accessible trails, eliminating invasive plants, removing dead willows from the pond, repairing the dam, and protecting wetlands were the initial priorities. Constructing the first trails to and around the pond were Eagle Scout projects. Boy Scouts, with their parents and leaders, cleared invasive plants, opening the forest. To restore native plants, volunteers transplanted wildflowers, with help from Brownies.

To make the trails more accessible, WCLT received grants from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), from the Westborough Civic Club, and from a private gift recognizing WCLT’s 25th Anniversary. WCLT volunteers built the bridge, boardwalk, and handrope with help from Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School students. In total it took approximately 1,000 hours of physical labor from 60 WCLT Stewardship volunteers to complete this project.

The sensory stations and audio tour are latest improvements to the site. As you walk around Gilmore Pond, enjoy this beautiful woodland sanctuary that engages all your senses and visit the audio and online material for more information about the flora and fauna that surround you.