In 2013, over a 10-day period, our group of 11 visited selected gardens in Ireland as well as places of interest to us individually.
Ireland is called the Emerald Isle, and we found the name well deserved with verdant landscapes nourished by cool rain. On most days we found there were three time periods that cycled within an hour or two: rain, just finished raining and about to rain. The landscapes included ancient mountains and vast areas of pasture.
In 1840, Ireland had about 8 million people. In subsequent years the potato blight, then not understood as a plant disease, resulted in large-scale crop failure, famine and emigration. Ireland has not yet re-attained its population of a century and a half ago; the Republic of Ireland has currently 4.59 million people. What that means is there are large expanses of open land with cattle and sheep, and even the larger cities (Dublin, Cork) seem small in comparison with the megacities of much of the world.
We also found extraordinary hospitality and friendliness that extended to a series of favors both smaller and larger, such as picking up an umbrella someone had dropped, and we were given group discounts virtually everywhere we went although not technically at the required group size.
The gardens we visited fell into three groups. The first group comprised botanic gardens where plant identity was central, and plants were often arranged by genus or family.
The second group of gardens had a large component of natural woodland in which plants were placed among trails and pathways. The third type of garden was found around manor houses or castles; these tended to be formal in design.
Several of the gardens were particularly unusual. We visited Birr House and Gardens, located toward the center of Ireland. Birr House has been and still is the home of the Rosse family since 1620 — even with a 30-year mortgage the house has been paid off for centuries.
In the mid-1800s, the third Earl of Rosse was very interested in astronomy and built the world’s largest reflector telescope with its 6-foot mirror, made not of glass but of metal. We were able to see the restored telescope as well as indoor displays of science and scientists. The best part of the gardens at Birr, I thought, was the long pathway along the Little Brosna River with dense forest and overhanging branches stretching over the stream. It wasn’t too difficult to imagine oneself in the Middle Ages — or Middle Earth.
Ilnaculin, or Garinish Island, is located just offshore in Bantry Bay, so one takes a boat to reach the garden island. The 37-acre island is home to natural areas of forest, rock and bogs, but also contains a formal Italian garden, a walled garden and other plantings interspersed among the native plants.
On the highest point of the garden, the British built a stone tower about 1805 as a lookout and defense against a feared invasion by Napoleon. One can climb the steep spiral staircase to the top level to enjoy the vista.
After the U.S. and Australia, Ireland is the third country for breeding race horses. One can see why: It’s the grass, rich in calcium and plentiful, nourished by frequent rains.
Attached to the national horse breeding farm is a Japanese garden, said to be the finest in Europe, and perhaps it is. This garden is unique in that the pathways are marked according to stages of a person’s life, such as the cave of birth, the bridge of marriage, the hill of ambition, and the final climb on the hill of old age.
Plant selection and extraordinary attention to maintenance complement the design. I find words or even photos inadequate to describe the overall construction and impact of this garden.
If you come to one of our fall horticulture classes at the UC Cooperative Extension office, we’ll show photos. I hope you, too, will be able to visit some of these gardens, perhaps as a side trip during a business visit to London or as part of a vacation. As a further incentive, Dublin is home to one of the world’s greatest libraries of ancient manuscripts and, lest we forget, Guinness is the local beverage.
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