The Gardens of Ireland

A tour of Ireland's finest gardens, staying in beautiful manor houses and castles, visiting many private homes and meeting Ireland's most famous gardeners. 

Day 1
Arrive at Shannon Airport. Visit Knappogue Castle & Walled Garden, a newly restored 19th century walled garden set against the beautiful backdrop of Knappogue Castle. Dating from 1817, the beautiful 1.25-acre garden is now restored to its former splendour. The tall and imposing walls of the walled garden have now been refurnished with climbing roses, grapevines and many clematis varieties.

Carry on to Islanmore Stud at Croom, home of the Tarry family with very impressive gardens

Lunch and a visit to the gardens of Echo Lodge 

Tour to Glin Castle - the epitome of the grand country house estate, and one of the most picturesque houses in Ireland, with walled gardens, rolling lawns, and specimen trees. Dating from the 13th Century, but mostly built in the 18th century, it is still home to the Fitzgerald family, Knights of Glin.   In the vicinity are a magnificent Trent Jones golf course, overlooking the River Maigue at Adare and the world famous Ballybunion golf course. 

Day 2

Visit Muckross House, Killarney, a truly impressive 19th century manor with a Portland stone exterior. Here you'll see exhibits of Kerry folklife, including ancient forms of harvesting, cobbling and printing as well as such crafts as stone carving, basket weaving, pottery and weaving - to say nothing of the hand carved period furniture. The splendid 19th century subtropical gardens run down towards the lakes of Killarney, and the nature walks offer a fine example of the beauty and serenity of the area. They were laid out in honour of Queen Victoria who greatly enjoyed visiting Muckross. The rhododendrons will be at their peak during our visit.   Carry on to Dunloe Castle    

The gardens at Dunloe Castle have a very interesting history. They contain an extensive and interesting collection of plants, several of which are rarely, if at all, found elsewhere in Ireland. It may surprise some to learn that the majority of the planted trees and shrubs date only to the 1920s and 1930 when the property was in the ownership of Mr. Howard Harrington, an American with a love of plants. Much of the plant interest at Hotel Dunloe Castle is the result of Harrington’s enthusiasm and foresight. Unpon his return to the USA the estate was purchased by Miss Agnes Petit who kept the gardens maintained and made some modest additions. In 1960, upon her death, the estate was purchased by Killarney Hotels Ltd.which was owned by Dr. Hans Liebherr whose love of plants and trees enabled the gardens to enter a new and exciting period.

He demolished the old house and build the new hotel complex but ensured the work should in no way threaten the old gardens. Dr. Liebherr sought the advise of one of Germany’s most respected horticulturists, Count Bernadotte, whose own garden in Mainau is world famous. He brought Dr. Gerd Krussmann, Director of Dortmund Botanic Gardens to make an inventory of the plants. Encouraged by the number of rare and unusual trees and shrubs flourishing in the gardens, Krussmann advised Dr. Liebherr to continue planting and to increase the representation of interesting plants.

You can walk around the world in an hour in the Castle Gardens. The voyage starts with the Chilean fir trees and leads to to Australian gums, South African lilies, New Zealand cabbage trees, New Zealand cherries, Japanese maples, North American dogwoods, South American fuchias and back to a Killarney strawberry tree. The gardens surrounding the shell of Mac Thomas' medieval Keep have a dramatic setting looking towards the mountains girdled by the Ring of Kerry. Camellias, magnolias, roses and rhododendrons flourish in the sheltered grounds together with rare specimens like the aromatic-leaved ‘headache’tree and the Chinese swamp cypress. These are catalogued in a booklet by plantsman and broadcaster, Sir Roy Lancaster, who supervises new plantings.  Lunch at leisure in Kenmare with time to explore theis charing town and then our final garden of the day at Dereen.  

The luxuriant woodlands of Derreen Gardens give glimpses of the sea and the surrounding wild and majestic country. Mossy paths and lichen-encrusted rocks, tunnels in deep shade through the rhododendrons, towering eucalyptus and groves of bamboo all contribute to the making of this fine sub-tropical garden.  Dereen is also famous for its tree ferns, Dicksonia antarctica, Azaleas, rhododendrons (some rising as high as 60 feet), and the tender Maddenii and Sinograndes.  Overnight & dinner  at The Sheen Falls Hotel. a 5* hotel overlooking Kenmare Bay.

Day 3

Three small gardens and a big one!

Carraig Abhainn Gardens - A tranquil and relaxing 2 acre garden, where you can experience peace in an oasis of calm and beauty surrounded by a river and mill stream and accessible only by unique bridges. You can wander round the islands of trees, flowers and shrubs, stroll by the river and enjoy the sights and sounds of the waterfalls or relax in the Portico with Italian-style columns, pond and rippling mill stream. Other features include woodland, wet garden, natural rock garden

Kilravock Gardens - A 2 acre garden full of surprises and only a stone’s throw from beautiful Dunmanus Bay. There are many different ‘rooms’ which feature a Mediterranean garden, oriental garden, woodland garden with stream, indoor and outdoor ferneries, southern hemisphere walk, sorbus walk and grove. Collections of Sorbus, Acers, Restios, Tree Ferns, Terrestrial Ferns, Hostas and Cordylines.

'Cois Cuain' This garden is entirely within 30 metres of the sea. It has extensive south-facing rockeries and the garden has many rare southern hemisphere plants as well as many salt-resistant plants. Lunch in a small restaurant outside Bantry

Garnish Island, Glengarriff, 

Perhaps the most magical setting a garden could have is to be on an island bathed in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. This small island of 15 hectares is known to horticulturists all over the world as an island garden of rare beauty. Its centrepiece is an outstanding Italian-style garden designed by Harold Peto, linked by other formal features such as a double sided herbaceous border and surrounded by a wild garden blending into the wider setting of the exceptional sea and mountain scenery around Glengarriff

Return to The Sheen Falls.   A "pub" night at Brook Lane with informal supper and traditional entertainment

Day 4

There are few gardens anywhere in Ireland where rare trees and shrubs are grown so successfully and in such a harmonious setting as the beautiful Robinsonian garden of Annes Grove. Set on a sloping site around an elegant early eighteenth-century house overlooking the River Awbeg, the thirty-acre garden is filled with thousands of thriving plants in a layout that merges unobtrusively into the landscape. In front of the house stretches a parkland with some fine trees; nearby is a walled garden with herbaceous borders, yew walk, rock garden and water garden; beyond in an extensive woodland garden noted for its rhododendrons; and down below in a wooded limestone gorge is a lovely river garden with an island, stony rapids, rustic bridges and a lush tapestry of green foliage.  Richard Grove Annesley's interest in gardening may have originally stemmed from visits to Castlewellan where his cousin, the fifth Earl of Annesley, had created one of the greatest arboreta of the age; but it was his lifelong friendship with the fourth Marquis of Headford, one of the great garden enthusiasts of his time, that encouraged Grove Annesley to develop his knowledge of plants. Headford was a personal friend and patron of the plant collector George Forrest, and following his example Grove Annesley joined in the sponsorship of plant hunting expeditions to the Himalayas and beyond. Seeds collected by Forrest and Kingdon Ward, notably rhododendrons, duly arrived back at Annes Grove, and these together with numerous plants exchanged with other gardens were used to create a garden in the 'wild' style initiated by William Robinson-the eminent Irish gardener and writer who advocated suiting the garden to the terrain and the plant to the location.  After visiting the garden we will have an early lunch here

Lismore Gardens

In the turbulent centuries preceding the reign of Charles II most substantial Irish gardens were protected behind walled or embanked enclosures adjacent to a house or castle. The Upper Garden at Lismore is a splendid surviving example of such an early garden - notable not only for its impressive walls, turrets and terracing but also because it has remained in continuous use for over three-and-a-half centuries. Its appeal is perhaps increased by the tradition that Spencer wrote part of his Faerie Queen here. 
The gardens are entered through an outer gatehouse known as the Riding House, built in 1631 to provide accommodation for mounted horsemen. The old Upper Garden lies to the left of the avenue and occupies a large rectangular area on two terraces. Its surrounding walls were built in 1626 by Richard Boyle, the Great Earl of Cork, a remarkable Elizabethan adventurer who had acquired the castle from Sir Walter Raleigh in 1602. In his diary he records payments by his mother 'for compassing my orchard and garden at Lismore with a wall of two and half feet thick and fourteen feet high of Iyme and stone and two turrets at each corner' and later recorded paying for 'digging, mowing and laying my terrace with paved, hewn stones in all over one hundred and six feet'.   Visitors are greeted in the garden by newly planted fruit trees covering part of the area once occupied by the Great Earl's orchard. A central walk between herbaceous borders backed by clipped yew hedges passes through the lower terrace in dramatic alignment with the cathedral spire. This leads to the upper terrace where there are large areas of vegetables. At the north west end lies a ridge-furrow greenhouse designed by Sir Joseph Paxton in 1858, while in the south-west corner, providing excellent views of the surrounding landscape, a tower looms.  The principal feature of this garden is an ancient yew walk said to have been planted in 1707 perhaps as an avenue to one of the town houses which formerly occupied the area. The surrounding lawns contain an interesting collection of spring-flowering shrubs, notably camellias, magnolias and rhododendrons including some extremely old specimens of R. barbatum, R. campanulatum, R. thomsonii and R. falconeri - possibly planted during the time of the Bachelor Duke.

Ashbourne House Hotel

Mr. R.H. Beamish laid out his alpine and sub-tropical gardens at Glounthane in 1900. Included were plants from China introduced by E.H. Wilson and from New Zealand by Captain Dorrien Smith of Tresco. There were Haplocartha scaposa introduced from South Africa by Mr. Beamish together with rare Mexican White Pine (Pinus ayacahuite), the tallest in the British Isles

Fota Gardens

Located in the sheltered harbour of Cork, Fota Arboretum and Gardens are of international importance, containing one of the finest collections of rare and tender trees and shrubs grown outdoors in Ireland and Britain.

The name "Fota" is derived from the Irish "Fód te" meaning warm soil and it is this very quality which enables the cultivation of tender and exotic plants which might not otherwise be grown in this country. Many of these specimens were introduced from Asia, Australia and the Americas during the 19th century. By the early 19th century, James Hugh Smith-Barry had already started on the layout of the gardens at Fota, building the terraces and high walls and "beginning to convert field, wood and swamp into Arboretum, water, gardens and semi-tropical jungle." His son, Arthur Hugh Smith-Barry and in turn his daughter Dorothy Bell continued this tradition of planting rare and exotic trees.

Overnight Ballymaloe.  Dinner at hotel

Day 5

Mount Congeve

Luch at Sion Hill, overlooking Waterford City.  The gardens at Sion Hill House are over 250 years old. The 5 acres of gardens are divided into formal gardens with parkland and woodland walks. There is a large antique restored fountain (1870 era fountain) which has mature lime and maple trees within the garden...some planted around 1729. Over 400 old shrub roses enhance the gardens along with magnolia, maples, tulip trees, hydrangeas. There is a Victorian walled garden at the side of the house with small fish ponds and and a secret garden on the other side of the house laid out in a Japanese style.

Kilmokea  The gardens at Kilmokea cover some seven acres. Formal-walled gardens, lead from one design feature to the next, the Italian loggia and pool with its fine stone pillars, the quarter garden brimming with Iris and Roses and on to the ‘old English’ style herbaceous border. A heavy wooden floor leads you into the woodland garden, the perfect environment for Rhododendrons, tender Camellias, Eucryphias, Magnolias and Echiums, the giant borage closely associated with Kilmokea.  With over 130 different species the garden is a delight to the amateur and more serious horticulturist.

Curraghmore  Magnificent home of the Marquis of Waterford and his ancestors since 1170. The grounds include an important arboretum and shell grotto.  Curraghmore can boast of the tallest Sitka Spruce in Ireland. The thickest Ash Tree in Ireland is to be found here too as is the tallest Wild Cherry Tree. The estate is a perfect 18th century landscape.

Return to Ballymaloe for a late dinner!

Day 6

An early start and then on to Birr Castle, with a coffee stop at The Rock of Cashel. . This palatial estate, set on the outskirts of the historic market town,  is the home of the Earls of Rosse.  It has one of the finest gardens in Europe and was mostly developed by Anne, Countess of Rosse who was brought up at Nymans, the beautiful house and garden in England. The present Lord Rosse still sponsors plant collecting trips to distant and remote corners of the world.  After a late lunch in Birr carry on to visit Belvedere gardens in Mullingar.  Several follies adorn the landscape including Ireland's largest folly - The Jealous Wall. The restored Belvedere House is an 18th century hunting/fishing lodge designed by the renowned German architect Richard Castle for Robert Rochfort, later the 1st Earl of Belvedere. A fascinating Walled Garden, designed by Ninian Nevin in 1857, contains one of Ireland's finest collections of rare and special plants.  Overnight at  Moyglare House at Maynooth.  Dinner at hotel

Day 7

Lakeview Gardens

 The Shackelton's garden at Lakeview is the result of generations of planting by family of horticulturalists.   Set within a backdrop of mature trees overlooking Mullagh Lake and beside a rambling farmhouse, they hold  their original old world charm and atmosphere.

Grey stone walls enclose an acre of sloping garden intersected by gravel paths and terraces. Each area is filled with rare and unusual plants, many originating from the famous Shackleton plant collection, and has a distinct planting theme: flower-filled borders with specific colour schemes: sunbaked terraces with planted walls overflowing with colour: a patch planted in the cottage garden style; a woodland shrub walk and artistically grown fruit and vegetables. Through the traditional whitewashed farmyard and overlooking an old orchard with ancient rose covered apple trees is a small nursery selling plants seen in the garden and often unavailable elsewhere. The garden and farm, with its flower filled meadows and naturalised bulbs, is worked to organic standards (IOFGA).

Lunch at Loughcrew. 

History, beauty, fantasy, and atmosphere make Loughcrew a magical experience. In a serene pleasure-garden of vistas and unexpected features, a spirit of mystery and dark history is created by the mighty ancient yew walk, a mediaeval mote and the martyr St. Oliver Plunkett's family church.

Delightful water-gardens lead to a fantasy mill, by the spectacular herbaceous and "hellfire" borders and a formal parterre. Past the "physik" border with cures for unspeakable complaints, the "grotesque" grotto with grassy roof, tortured pillars and weird mythical frescoes guards a hidden rockery with fairy sculptures.

Tullynally Castle

The gardens, like the castle are on a magnificent scale, taking in nearly 12 hectares. Terraced lawns around the castle overlook superb 18th century parkland. The adjoining woodland gardens and walled gardens date largely from the early 19th century and encompass a grotto of eroded limestone from nearby Lough Derravaragh and two ornamental lakes. The present owners have added a Chinese garden, complete with pagoda and a Tibetan garden of waterfalls and streams; and a local sculptor has made fantastic woodcarvings in existing roots and trees. The walled gardens have extensive flower borders and an avenue of magnificent 200 year old Irish yews.

Ballinlough Castle

A sense of antiquity prevails as one enters the gates of Ballinlough. Perched on a hill overlooking two lakes, the 17th century castle is the home of Sir John and Lady Nugent.  The walled garden covers 1.2 ha and is divided into four walled sections. On view are herbaceous borders, a grass tennis court, a lilly pond, a rose garden, a herb and soft fruit garden and a well stocked orchard. From the walled gardens, a white door leads to the lakeside walks with the charming water garden and its rustic summerhouse. The walk around the lake affords dramatic views of the castle and its demesne.

Overnight at  Moyglare House at Maynooth.  Dinner at hotel 

Day 8

The Gardens of Dublin

This morning to the Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin followed by Malahide Castle Gardens.

The botanic gardens were established in 1795 under the auspices of the Dublin Society, later the Royal Dublin Society, at the behest of the Irish Parliament to 'promote a scientific knowledge in the various branches of agriculture'. The twenty-seven-acre site chosen for the garden lay outside the hamlet of Glasnevin on the former demesne of Thomas Tickell, a minor poet and ardent admirer of Joseph Addison, the statesman and writer. A survival from this period is a double line of yew trees known as Addison's Walk which Tickell probably planted in memory of his much-esteemed patron.

The original botanic gardens were laid out by their first director, Dr Walter Wade, Professor of Botany to the Dublin Society, with the help of the first superintendent, John Underwood. After Wade's death in 1825 the gardens went into a period of decline but were resurrected and redesigned by the new director Ninian Nivan between 1834 and 1838, with further modifications carried out by his successors Dr David Moore (1838-79), Sir Frederick Moore (1879-1922), J. W. Besant (1922 44) and Dr T. J. Walsh (1944-68).  Curator hosted lunch here.  In the afternoon to Malahide

Here you will find the many lime-tolerant genera so often bypassed in favour of more eye-catching plants. The scent from philadelphus, syringa, deutzia and old roses more than compensates for any lack of colour, while the enormous range of non-ericaceous plants at Malahide-one of the most impressive of its kind in these islands-is particularly admired for its collection of ceanothus, clematis, crocosmia, eryngium, escallonia, euphorbia, hebe, hypericum, olearia and pittosporum.
The gardens cover twenty acres, including a four-acre walled garden, and lie to the west and north of Malahide Castle. They form part of a 250-acre demesne. The history of the Talbots at Malahide stretches back to the end of the twelfth century, but the gardens are the creation of Milo, the seventh Lord Talbot de Malahide-a noted plantsman who assembled a collection of over 5,000 species and cultivars between 1948 and 1973. Close connections with Australia resulted in Australasian genera being particularly well represented, but Lord Talbot also had a fondness for South American plants and was a recognised authority on the genus Olearia-interests that are still reflected in the planting today.

Dinner tonight at Leixlip Castle the private home of The Hon Desmond Guinness

Day 9

The Gardens of Wicklow and South Dublin

Mount Usher 

This lovely "Robinsonian" garden, laid out along the Vartry River, measures 8ha and dates back to around 1850. The river is spanned by suspension bridges, from which numerous waterfalls and superb views can be enjoyed. There are approximately 5000 different species of plants, shrubs and trees, originating from many parts of the world. The extensive collection of rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias and camellias is exceptionally colourful in spring. There are also those shrubs and trees, planted precisely for their display of berries and glorious foliage, to be admired in the autumn.

Powerscourt 

We will lunch here before visiting the gardens at Powerscourt, which were laid out in two main periods. When the house was rebuilt in the decade after 1731, the surrounding grounds were also remodelled. The design reflected the desire to create a garden which was part of the wider landscape. To the north formal tree plantations framed the vista from the house, while a walled garden, fish pond, cascades, grottos and terraces lay to the south. Walks wound through the wooded grounds and a fine tree lined avenue was created. A century later the 6th Viscount Powerscourt instructed his architect, Daniel Robertson, to draw up new schemes for the gardens.

Helen Dillon's garden

Tea with Helen Dillon, a world-renowned plantswoman, writer, lecturer and broadcaster. With her husband Val, she has created a garden that is considered to be one of the gems of the horticultural world. This widely acclaimed garden is a mix of startling design and perfectly grown plants - many of them rare and unusual. The view of the garden from the windows of the elegant drawing room is in the lexicon of most photographed scenes in contemporary gardening.

A dominant feature in the garden is a canal set in Irish limestone, bordered on each side by superb borders - one mainly in red and the other in shades of dreamy blue. Behind the borders pathways lead into garden rooms. A recent addition is a gravel garden planted mainly with exotically-leaved members of the Araliaceae family.

Change is a feature of this magnificent garden. This spring has seen the transformation of the front garden from a sophisticated town garden to a birch-bordered glade with exciting new planting.  Overnight at  Moyglare House at Maynooth.  Dinner at hotel 

Day 10

This morning you will visit the gardens of Baronscourt, home of the Duke of Abercorn.  These very private gardens extend to 200 acres of park and arboretum and 20 acres of planting.  Lunch here.  After lunch you will visit another private estate, Drenagh, which though the main landscape dates from the 18th century also owes much to the last gardener who previously worked at Nymans.  It has a Chinese garden with a moon gate, a bee garden, and a leaf tapestry.  Dinner and Overnight at Ardtara House in the Sperrin Mountains.

Day 11 
A canter through three of Ireland's finest gardens - Mount Stewart, Rowallane and Seaforde.  All three gardens are in county Down and benefit from their temperate marine setting.  Seaforde is known for its nurseries, whilst Mount Stewart, the home of the Marquis of  Londonderry is a series of splendid separate gardens set around the neo-classical mansion.  You will stay at Culloden House, a country house hotel overlooking Belfast Lough.  Dinner tonight with Jim Bradley, garden expert and great grandson of Augustine Henry.

Day 12 
Either depart for Belfast airport, (90 mins) or Dublin Airport (just under 2.5 hrs)

Your tour includes:

• 11 nights accommodation in twin or double bedded rooms with en suite bath of 4* or better quality with a full Irish breakfast every day , a light lunch on 8 days and dinner every night
• All admissions as specified
• Porterage for up to 2 bags per person
• The tour will be lead by Karin Stanley, a native of Ireland, a graduate of Horticutural Design from Radcliffe, author of  "The Uniqueness of the Irish Garden" and resident of Boston.
• Transport by small luxury coach. 
• Maximum of 15 participants
  

Irish Garden Design
31 South Street,
South Natick
Ma 01760