"A garden is a sort of sanctuary, a chamber roofed by heaven To wander in, to cherish, to dream through undisturbed, A little pleasance of the soul, by whose wicket the world can be shut." Sir Robert Lorimer (1898)

The walled garden was created with the house in 1822. It was built at the beginning of the modern garden era, as we know it today, before then natural landscapes were popular around large country houses.

In 1822 Scot J. C. Loudon published his "Encyclopedia of Gardening" containing instructions for all the various garden elements which became fashionable in the 19th century and all these elements can be seen at Ballindoolin; the rockery, shrubbery, glasshouse, rose garden and massed carpet bedding which lent itself to the planting of parterres in a formal manner.

The 18th century landscape gardener Lancelot "Capability" Brown designed "natural" landscapes by using clumps and belts of trees to enhance the natural countryside, this can be seen in Ballindoolin looking West from the Iron Age Mound on the nature trail. The woods were planted around this time and it is possible that the Dove Côte was built as a ruin to compliment the natural wild look of the landscape. The ha-ha or sunken ditch which surrounds the land at the front of Ballindoolin House is a barrier to livestock but gives the illusion of continuous fields stretching into the distance from the front door of the house

In 1870 William Robinson was the first to believe that the qualities of plants should influence their position in the garden, an idea that the famous lady gardener Gertrude Jekyll put to good use in her graduating colour borders, very similar to our south facing herbaceous border.

After the first world war labour became increasingly expensive, and many beautiful gardens became neglected due to decreasing family fortunes, and large scale planting of shrubs as ground cover to reduce maintenance became popular. The Ballindoolin gardens shared the same sad fate, over the years the walled garden and pleasure gardens became almost completely overgrown and deserted.

In 1994 the then Irish Minister for Tourism Mr Charley McCreevey initiated the Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Programme to restore historic gardens. The 4 million pounds allocated to the programme, was matched by the garden owners own equity, and further enhanced by FÁS Community Employment Schemes.

The Programme has been enormously successful, and is the envy of other European countries, Ballindoolin is one of 26 gardens that have benefited from the scheme - all of them hugely diverse. The future of Irish gardens is looking bright at the present time, however the gardens have to be self sustainable and they will need much creative thinking and managing if they are to survive in the future.

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Ballindoolin House and Garden
Edenderry, Co. Offaly, Ireland
Tel: (+353) 46 9731430 Fax: (+353) 46 9732377
Email: esther@ballindoolin.com