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GARDENS OF IRELAND
Gardens, Stately Homes and Castles
Ireland is not always the first place that springs to mind for heritage homes and gardens. It should do! It boasts some of the finest great houses in the British Isles where the very best of garden designers have worked their magic touch. The soil is rich, the climate mild, the rainfall good. These factors, combined with some seriously wealthy landowners, has left the country rich with stunning houses and well-stocked gardens.
This tour brings you to a wide selection of beautiful places, some already world famed like Heywood and Powerscourt, but also to some of Ireland's less well-known treasures. It will obviously delight home and garden enthusiasts but also appeal to the more general tourist who'd simply enjoy seeing towns, rural landscapes, and midland counties often skipped on the more traditional tourist routes. Towns like Trim, Birr and Roscrea, for example, are typical of an older, traditional Ireland and have yet to reflect Ireland's increasingly 21st century look.
Everyone will enjoy exploring our three-night base at Birr. The town has some fabulous pubs, the small Georgian market square has pretty shop fronts, and for those who really want to spoil themselves, our chosen hotel offers spa treatments!
We have a Special Event tour featuring Tudor Homes and Gardens and the Hampton Court Flower Show, Footsteps of a Queen. We also offer a Chelsea Flower Show tour and other scheduled gardens tours throughout the year.
Available at any date for private groups of 2 – 15 people. Price available upon application. Rates are based upon vehicle and guide hire per day; groups of 7 - 15 would have a per person rate same/similar to one of our scheduled tours of the same length.
If you do not have a group of traveling companions and are still interested in this custom tour itinerary, you are welcomed to join a waitlist…
We record who is looking for travel companions to make up a tour with them. We need between 6 and 8 persons minimum to operate a tour without it being uneconomic for us or too expensive for you. We will be happy to run the occasional special departure IF there is sufficient interest.
If you would like to check on or join a waitlist for this itinerary, please email us for full information: specialgrouptours@yahoo.com
Tentative Itinerary
Day One
Our tour leaves Dublin at 09.00 and begins in memorable fashion with the city of Trim, a place crammed with historical associations and worth a visit in its own right before we move on to the wonderfully named Butterstream gardens. Apart from ancient monastic remains, it also has the largest Norman Castle in Ireland (used in Mel Gibson's film 'Wallace') and was where the great Duke of Wellington was brought up.
Butterstream is a new garden, developed over the last 20 years by Prince Charles' friend and garden adviser Jim Reynolds. Known as the Irish Sissinghurst, it is a series of garden rooms that run beside the stream that gives the property its name. They then open up suddenly into a great meadow garden where two classical temples face each other across a lime alley. As this garden has erratic opening times we may sometimes have to substitute an alternative at short notice.
Our final visit of the day is Belveder House. This is a magnificently restored 18th century Palladian building with a spectacular walled garden and amazing follies. It sits in 160 acres of parkland on the shores of Loch Ennell. The House is fully restored and offers an interactive "Upstairs Downstairs" experience with a guide present to answer questions and an owners' gallery. The loch is famed as the inspiration for Jonathon Swift's Lilliput and we'll visit the spot where he looked out and saw 'little people' on the opposite bank of lake.
Accommodation: Birr
Day Two
Our route today first takes us via truly the back-roads through the scenic Slieve Bloom hills and forests.
We arrive at the Japanese and St. Fiacha gardens in Tully. These world famous Japanese gardens were created in 1906 to symbolise the 'Life of Man' from cradle to grave. The adjacent St Fiachra's garden boasts four acres of woodland and the Waterford Crystal Garden.
Next to Heywood gardens. This is considered as one of Sir Edwin Luytens greatest achievements - some compliment when you consider he was also the architect behind such renowned places as Great Dixter and Knebworth. As with several other of his great gardens, he collaborated with the great landscape gardener Gertrude Jekyll on this one. The gardens combine the remnants of the 18th century landscape of long vistas, follies and ancient trees, with hidden pergolas and a sunken circular garden.
Finally, time permitting, a brief stop at Emo Court. Designed by James Gando in 1790, Emo is one of Ireland's finest stately homes and is a magnificent example of the neo-classical style. It's set in impressive parkland.
Accommodation: Birr
Day Three
We start our day at the Birr Castle demesne, the private home of Lord and Lady Rosse. Their magnificent gardens (the largest in the country) are particularly noted for spring flowering magnolias, cherries and crab apples but in total it covers over 50 hectares and contains more than 1000 different varieties and species of trees and shrubs. The famous box hedge is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the highest in the world! The park of the castle also houses the giant 72 inch reflecting telescope built in the mid 1800s. For a long time it was the largest in the world. And today it is the central artefact in a fascinating museum of astronomy.
This afternoon we visit the beautiful Ballaghmore Castle. Built in 1480 for the Gaelic chieftain, MccGillophadraig (Fitzpatrick), it has been lovingly restored in keeping with its heritage.
With a visit to the historic castle dominated town of Roscrea thrown in for good measure, thus ends another perfect day!
Accommodation: Birr
Day Four
The gardens of Wicklow will be the focus of our final day, and of course we'll also be enjoying the splendid countryside that the county id justly famed for.
Our first featured visit will be to Killruddy House, the home of the Earls of Meath since 1618. The house itself dates from the 1600s and the extensive formal gardens, laid out in the 1680s, are the oldest surviving ones of their type in Ireland. The core of the gardens is a pair of canals (550 feet long) which focus on the house at one end & on an avenue of lime trees at the other. This is a 'must-see'.
There are several options that we might find time to include next depending on how long we're at our featured sites, the group interests and the weather. The county is blessed with delights for the home and garden enthusiast including The National Garden Exhibition Centre, Kilmacurragh Arboretum and Mount Usher Gardens. However, whatever we choose we'll finish our lovely tour on the highest of notes at Powerscourt House and gardens. Here we'll wonder at the sublime blend of formal gardens, sweeping terraces, statuary and ornamental lakes.
We return to Dublin.
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