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• Gardens of Ireland Tour

Ireland is a country known for its stunning landscapes, vibrant colourful villages, ancient Celtic relics, lush green valleys and abandoned castles. As an ocean 'outpost' at the western edge of Europe, Ireland has a natural character quite different to the Continental landmass. Its geology is remarkably varied, with rocks that range back over 2,500 million years. Once long ago, Ireland was covered by ice, and the track of the glaciers can be read in the dramatic shapes of the mountains and the little drumlins hills of the countryside.

DAY 1 : Arrive in Dublin
Cead Mile Failte, Welcome to Ireland. This morning you will arrive into Dublin Airport where you will collect your Hertz rental car & proceed to your accommodation.

This afternoon you will travel to Ranelagh for a guided tour of Helen Dillon’s Garden. This is an urban garden, an oasis in the city, created over the last twenty five years, where a series of little gardens are arranged around a central lawn, each with a different theme. Controlled throughout by a strong sense of design and colour is a plant collection to rival that of a small botanic garden. Clematic and rare herbaceous plants a speciality. You will have a guided tour followed by tea/coffee and biscuits in the house along with a talk from Helen herself.

Overnight in the Royal Marine Hotel in Dublin.

DAY 2: Full day tour of Dublin
Today you can enjoy a full day tour of Dublin City. On your city tour you will experience all the wonderful sights and landmarks of this ancient city. The tour includes some of Dublin’s most renowned sites, such as St Patrick’s Cathedral and the Book of Kells. St Patrick’s Cathedral is the national cathedral of Ireland and it is also the largest cathedral in the country. Traditionally the place where the cathedral lies today was the place where St. Patrick baptized the pagans to Christianity in the 5th century and there has been a church there since. The cathedral was badly damaged during the Cromwellian invasion in Ireland and it was eventually completely re-furbished by the Guinness family in the 19th century. Jonathan Swift, author of Gullivers' Travellers was dean of the cathedral for 32 years and his remains are buried within the cathedral.

Trinity College is a residential college in the heart of the city. Here you will visit the Colonnades, which houses the college’s greatest treasures, of which the most famous is the Book Of Kells. The book is a magnificently illustrated, in Celtic design, version of the Gospels designed by unknown hands in the monastery of Kells in Meath about 800. It was presented to Trinity College in the mid-17th Century in order to save it from Cromwell’s army.

In the afternoon you will have a guided tour of the National Botanic Gardens. These colourful gardens cover a total area of 19.5 hectares, part of which is the natural flood plain of the river Tolka. The gardens contain a large plant collection which includes approximately 20,000 species and cultivars. There are four ranges of glasshouses including the recently restored Curvilinear Range. Notable features include herbaceous displays, rose garden, rockery, vegetable garden, arboretum, extensive shrub borders and wall plants. Gardens are accessible for people with disabilities but there are some steep gradients.

Overnight again at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dublin.

DAY 3: Mount Usher Gardens and Powerscourt Gardens
Today you will travel to county Wicklow and your first visit of the day will be to Mount Usher Gardens where you will have a guided tour. These lovely gardens stand in 8 ha of well watered land on the banks of the River Vartry. Water forms an essential part of the scenery, with cascades and bridges visible in just about every section. The gardens were laid out by Edward Walpole, a Dublin businessman and his sons, from 1886 onwards, as a wild garden and contain about 5,000 species including many rhododendron and eucryphia.

In the afternoon you will visit Powerscourt House and Gardens. The Powerscourt Estate, originally granted to Sir Richard Wingfield, Viscount Powerscourt, by James I in 1690, provides a breath crown in which to set the jewel of Richard Castle's Palladian mansion.

The glorious formal gardens at Powerscourt owe their completion to sibling rivalry. The bones of a baroque garden with steep terraces overlooking a dramatic view of the Sugar Loaf Mountain. In the mid 19th century, the 7th Viscount Powerscourt with no heirs and an intense dislike of his brother who stood to inherit, decided to expend the family fortunes on the creation of an elaborate garden. Its most striking features are the circular pond and fountain flanked by winged Pegasi, elaborate ironwork, Italian statuary and the double staircase with the Aeolus fountain and Italianate patterned ramps. Sadly, the centre block of the house was gutted by a disastrous fire in 1974 but in 1996 a process of regeneration began with the re-roofing of the house and the restoration of the windows. The entrance hall now features an exhibition describing the fascinating history of Powerscourt.

Continue to Ireland’s sunny south east where you will overnight at Whites Hotel, Wexford.

DAY 4: Wexford - Cork
Departing Wexford you will travel to nearby Waterford. No visit to Waterford would be complete without a visit to the Waterford Crystal factory - this world-renowned crystal is made here in the city by a skilled team of workers. Visitors are guided through the production area, where they can see the birth of crystal from a white-hot furnace, and then witness its transformation by dedicated blowers, cutters and engravers into beautiful sparkling crystal. On your return from the tour, visitors are shown around the Crystal Gallery, which houses one of the world’s finest displays of crystal.

In the afternoon you will travel to Cork stopping off at Mount Congreve Gardens.

The Mount Congreve Gardens created by Ambrose Congreve over the past eighty two of his ninety three years, are vast and spectacular, where twenty five gardeners are employed. Four acres of walled garden have been arranged into May, June, July and August borders, each filled with usual and unusual herbaceous plants including special iris beds and great hydrangea in north facing beds. Fruit trees fill the middle beds as well as the biggest Clematis Armandii in these islands. The main body of the garden is woodland, with runs of incredible magnolia, camellia, rhododendrons and azaleas, cherry, acer, azara, eucryphia, michelia, pittsoporum and prunus. At the height of late spring the perfume is overpowering. All these flowering shrubs are overlooked by 18th & 19th century plantations of Oak and Beech. There are over 16 miles of path winding in and around the plants, so it is possible to loose ones way.

Overnight at the Montenotte Hotel, Cork.

DAY 5: Ballymaloe Gardens and Cobh
This morning you will have a guided tour of Ballymaloe Gardens. These beautiful formal gardens, managed by the Allen family who also manage the famous Ballymaloe Cookery School, are well worth a visit. Features include a herb garden set among beech hedges, with a large variety of herbs laid out in a formal parterre edged with box hedging. There is also a formal fruit garden with a wide selection of fruit trees and soft fruit. The vegetable garden is beautifully laid out in diamonds and squares with herringbone paths of old brick. The gardens also have a pretty water feature and a recently planted Celtic maze.

In the afternoon you will head to Cobh for a visit to the Cobh Heritage Centre. Cobh Heritage Centre commemorates the days when Cobh (then known as Queenstown) was a vital link in transatlantic liner traffic, particularly in the years of high emigration. Because more than 2½ million people form all over Ireland departed from Cobh for lives in the US, Canada and Australia, Cobh became synonymous with emigration. The center also offers exhibits that re-create the age of luxury-liner travel and events such as the sinking of the Titanic and Lusitania.

Overnight in the Montenotte Hotel.

DAY 6: Cork – Kenmare
Before departing county Cork you will visit Blarney Castle. What remains of this impressive castle today is a massive square tower, with a parapet rising 83 feet. The infamous Blarney Stone is wedged far enough underneath the battlements to make it uncomfortable to reach, but not far enough that countless people don’t, for reasons inexplicable, abandon all concern for health to kiss it!

Travelling westwards, you will stop enroute for a guided tour of Bantry House and Gardens. In 1796 a French invasion fleet sailed into Bantry Bay to join forces with Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen. But a storm changed the course of history, forcing the French to turn back to Brest. Richard White must have blessed that so-called “Protestant Wind” as he watched their retreat from Bantry House. White bought the property in 1765, which was enlarged by his son Richard, the 2nd Earl of Bantry. The house is filled with a unique collection of tapestries, furniture, carpets and art treasures, collected by the 2nd Earl from all over Europe in the 19th Century.

The magnificent gardens and grounds (under restoration) are home to many sub-tropical plants and shrubs – reflecting the best in European design and style. Other features within the 45 acre grounds include the renowned 100-stepped “stairway to the sky”, the Italian Garden and the largest wisteria circle in the country.

Overnight at the Kenmare Bay Hotel, Kenmare.

DAY 7: Kenmare - Glengarriff
Today explore Garnish Island by boat. Also known as Ilnacullin, or the Island of Holly, Garnish Island is perhaps the most magical setting a garden could have. Known to horticulturalists the world over as an oasis of rare beauty, this 15 hectares of garden boasts a rich variety of plant life. Be on the lookout for the seal colonies that call the surrounding waters home.

After lunch visit Glengarriff Bamboo Park. This unique, exotic garden is home to over 30 species of Bamboo, 12 different species of palm tree, huge tree ferns, eucalyptus, and other plants that thrive in our mild climate. You will surely want to linger on the superb coastal walks.

Return to Kenmare Bay Hotel for overnight.

DAY 8: Ring of Kerry
Today after a leisurely start, you will have a tour of the Ring of Kerry, which takes you through spectacular coastal and mountainous scenery along the base of the highest mountain range in Ireland, the MacGillycuddy Reeks. The journey takes you through villages and towns depicting typical rural life in Ireland. It is really hard to explain the true beauty of the Ring of Kerry, except to say that it should not be missed. You will have a guided tour of the Gardens at Muckross House. The Gardens at Muckross House are renowned world-wide for their beauty. In particular they are noted for their fine collections of azaleas and rhododendrons, an extensive water garden, and an outstanding rock garden hewn out of natural limestone. Muckross House is also home to a number of skilled craft workers who can be viewed using traditional skills in the crafts of weaving, bookbinding and pottery.

Overnight at the Riverside Hotel in Killarney.

DAY 9: Killarney – Clare
Before departing Killarney you will visit Dunloe Castle Gardens. You can walk around the world in an hour in the Castle Gardens. The voyage starts with Chilean fir trees and leads on to Australian gums, South African lilies, New Zealand cabbage trees, New Zealand cherries, Japanese maples, North American dogwoods, South American fuchsias and back to a Killarney strawberry tree. The gardens surrounding the shell of MacThomas' 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 Roy Lancaster, who supervises new planting.

In the early afternoon travel via the Shannon Estuary to County Clare where you will visit the world renowned Cliffs of Moher.

Your final night will be spent in the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon.

DAY 10: Depart
This morning return to Shannon Airport where you will return your rental car & take your transatlantic flight back to the US. Slan Abhaile – Safe Home!

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