Kylemore Abbey Gardens

Continuing my travels up the West coast of Ireland last summer, I drove from Salthill’s beautiful Galway Bay hotel, through Connemara and its detours, and then on to Kylemore Abbey. Yesterday, I mentioned about the gardens at Kylemore.

view from the High Gardens, Kylemore Abbey

There are several Gardens at Kylemore Abbey – there’s the lower gardens, which are filled with trees and walking paths around Lough Pollacappul. Then, there are the upper gardens. A short drive (or walk) by bus leads you up the hill to the top of the Mountain. When you first get out of the bus, the view (above) is breathtaking and natural. As you walk on the pathway, you begin to see the Walls of the garden – surrounded with these giant trees that were so big that I couldn’t get my arms around.

The Tea garden cafe is to the right, and as you walk past it, you enter into the first of the walled gardens. Below you can see the interesting layout with the white Victorian greenhouses on the far end, a caretaker’s cottage, and lovely white benches throughout. The second picture is with your back to the caretaker’s cottage, looking toward the entrance.

In addition to the caretaker’s cottage (below) which is heated by peat (peat pile 2nd picture) there’s also a second carpenter’s cottage and some ruins (very first picture at the top) of a heated conservatory that is in the process of being restored.

Other than the main sculpted garden, there’s also a really nice vegetable garden / herbal remedy garden. This one’s more rustic and has a stream off to the edge.

The stream runs off into a grove of white beech trees.

As I left the upper gardens, It started raining – just in time for me to head back to the Galway Bay hotel. Luckily, I was able to get out the map and avoid all of the fun detours that took me so far out of the way, and get on some main streets to get back to Galway for a massage and a good nights rest with the windows open to the fresh sea breeze.

The next day, I headed back, stopping in Athenry and Clonmacnoise. More from those later.

Powerscourt Estate and Gardens Day Trip

In the end of May, my mom and step dad came to Ireland to visit. We took several day trips about the area and had a really great time seeing each other. On May 31, mom and I went to Powerscourt Estate and Gardens because I had a discount ticket for the bus trip down which included the entry.

(me and mom on the upper deck of the bus – don’t we look happy)

Powerscourt is situated in the Wicklow mountains about 35 minutes south of Dublin, and was originally built as a country castle estate around 1300 by Baron La Poer (Anglocised to Powers). The castle’s position was of strategic military importance, in that the castle’s owner could control access to the nearby Dargle, Glencree and Glencullen rivers. The original home built here was 3 stories and had some 68 rooms. Over time, the castle changed hands many times.

In the 1700’s, the castle was remodeled to have the current palace built around the remnants of the castle which had been gutted by fire. In the 1800’s, the house underwent renovations to “modernize” the estate. Mervyn Wingfield, seventh Viscount Powerscourt, decided that the grounds needed redone as well.

He had the grounds were laid out include a walled garden (above), tower valley (with stone tower – below),

fish pond, grottoes,

(Grotto looking into the Japanese Gardens)

and terraces – all of which were said to have been inspired by a visit to Versailles. A century later, the Japanese garden

and a pet cemetery (below)was added. The entire parkland was completed around 1880.

Today, the home is a tourist attraction, has a 18 hole golf course, a beautiful waterfall, and even has a Ritz Carlton hotel nearby commanding some of the best views of the mountains.

More information about the Powerscourt House & Gardens can be found at:

www.powerscourt.ie

For more pictures from the gardens, please see my flickr site here.

Schwerin

Ok, I finally did it – I broke down and got a copy of Adobe Lightroom. With over 3000 pictures behind in my “storage” (I’ve been gone travelling almost every weekend since May, and when I haven’t been gone on day trips, I’ve been out being social and/or trying to just clean enough stuff to get by for the next week.) this has been very cool to learn. It allows for some bulk editing of photos, which means that I may be able to catch up to editing and getting pictures online for you to view.

Over the weekend I have put up the pictures from Schwerin (link to flickr set here), where this year’s Buga (one of germany’s biggest) landscape and garden show was held. The photography group I’m a part of made a very long day trip up on May 2nd – and the weather was absolutely perfect. Clear blue skies, a light breeze and sun sun sun. Add to it the Tulips being in full bloom, and I was a happy girl because I could get great photos – and also a few new ideas for my dad’s business back in the states.

A couple highlights (some are available for print – if you’re interested):

Schwerin Castle

Castle’s landscaped beds

The back is a conservatory/tea garden that was built out – the top is the upper gardens that walk around to where I’m standing for the photograph – on a huge columnade platform that has a walking area and sculptures. My back is to the Schwerin Harbor (beautiful!). To my Left is a man made island – and to my right – a man made grotto where the waves break.