Ireland's Oldest Garden: Re: Killruddery House gardens

» Georgene A. Bramlage - Re: Killruddery House gardens

In response to message posted by Howie:

Hi Howie,

Here is a long answerto your short observation...

Thanks for stopping by...we also did visit Powerscourt and although both houses at Killruddery and Powerscourt date to the 17th century and gardens were started in the 18th century and they are geographically situated close by in County Wicklow...Powerscourt Italinate Gardens,/i> which is what most of us think of when we think of Irish Gardens was partially designed by London architect Daniel Robertson in the mid-1800's. Powerscourt gardens were not finished in their glory until a 1/4 century afterwards and are an amalgam of Robertson'swork and local contemporary landscape gardeners.

Killruddery Gardens were also begun in the 17th-18th centuries by an assortment of designers and most parts have been maintained - pictures to come in Part II - there were addtions in the mid-1800's and Robertson designed stone balustrading for a terrace there -pictures to come in Part II.

I'm not surprised that you missed the gardens at Killruddery...it has not been until recently and with money from various economic funds that the gardens have really begun to attract visitors and then we are still few in number. The place is really very modest in comparision with places like Powerscourt, but very much more homey and comfy :+)

I doubt very much if we would have found Killruddery on our own and probably the only reason we did visit was that the person who in charge of our arrangements found out how keen Bill and I were on gardens and garden history, and how keen the other three members of our group were on houses, artifacts and art!

The five of us almost had to be lifted out of there with a crane we all enjoyed ourselves so much and were loath to leave!

Please do come back again and take a look at the pictures. I enjoyed your personal take on Powerscourt and black beer!