Gardens of Northern Ireland

23 – 27 July 2017

Itinerary

Sunday 23 July 2017

Please see attached pick‐up list for departure points and times

We join our coach and transfer to London Luton Airport in time to check-in for our flight to Belfast International Airport whichis due to depart at 12.55hrs (please refer to the enclosed ‘Travel Information’ sheet for full flight details). On arrival in Belfast, due at 14.10hrs,we will join our local coach and transfer to our first visit, Ballyrobert Cottage Garden & Nursery, Ballyclare, Co Antrim.Maurice and Joy Parkinson work this six acre garden and provide an exquisite display of cottage garden plants.The garden is sub-divided into themes or individual garden areas and includes the lakeside garden; the front cottage garden; the formal cottage border; the sheltered garden; and a woodland and wildlife haven.Despite the heavy clay soil, and being located in a frost pocket, a wide range of plants flourish and includes phlox, hosta, rudbeckia, rodgersia, hellebore and ornamental grasses. Refreshments are available here (not included).

Following our visit we continue to our hotel, the Jurys Inn Belfast,Great Victoria Street,Belfast,BT1 6DY (Tel: 028 9053 3500). All rooms are en-suite with television, free WI-FI, hairdryer and tea & coffee making facilities. Dinner will be served in the evening.

Monday 24 July 2017

Today, following our full Irish breakfast, we will travel to The Richardson’s Walled Garden, set in the tranquil landscaped grounds ofGreenmount Campus. The garden has a dramatic, formal framework with softer planting within. Intricate Celtic knot gardens and a small maze throw a wonderful contrast to the colourful mixed borders and rose beds. Pleached lime trees, formal yew hedges and a large trellis clad pergola contrast with the informal potager planting of fruit and vegetables amongst ornamental plants.

Monday 24 July 2017 (continued)

In the afternoon we continue to Antrim Castle Gardens, an absolute historical gem. These unique gardens, located close to Antrim town centre, recently underwent a major restoration on many of the key features which date back to the late 17th century. The site features a number of notable new, restored and ornamental gardens which retain a strong sense of history and intimacy.

We return to our hotel where dinner is served in the evening.

Tuesday 25 July 2017

Following breakfast, we travel to the scenic Antrim coast, where we visit the gardens at Glenarm Castle, the 400 year-old home of the Earls of Antrim. Originally created to supply the Castle with its fruit and vegetables, and one of the oldest in Ireland, the Walled Garden is now filled with exciting flowers and specimen plants with rich displays of herbaceous plants. There is also a wonderfully scented herb garden, surrounded by a circular yew hedge, which features four stone capitols which came from the Earl-Bishop’s palace at Downhill in Co Derry.

We continue along the beautiful Antrim coast, via the picturesque village of Cushendun, (opportunity for lunch here – not included) with its distinctive, picturesque Cornish-style village square and cottages designed by architect Clough Williams-Ellis of Portmeirion fame, to the Giant’s Causeway. The 37,000 hexagonal basaltic columns were created by ancient volcanic eruptions some 60 million years ago, along the same chain of seismic activity that created Fingal’s Cave on Staffa, a hundred miles or so to the north. Of course, there is also a more romantic explanation – that it was built by the giant Finn McCool, as the consequence of a gargantuan spat with a Scottish adversary, although another version of the legend has it that he was merely trying to reach his girlfriend. Either way it is an impressive sight.

We return to our hotel where dinner is served in the evening.

Wednesday 26 July 2017

After breakfast, we make our way to Co. Down for our visit to Mount Stewart, the dazzling and idiosyncratic gardens which bask in the micro-climate of low rainfall and humid coastal air that exists here. The Italian Garden south of the house is in the form of a giant parterre, edged in startling golden thuja or smouldering purple berberis and filled with plantings of carmine, yellow and scarlet on one side, with cooler blue, lavender and grey on the other. Elsewhere, there is a Spanish garden with huge eucalyptuses looming in the woods behind, and an exuberant and formal sunken garden surrounded by a fine pergola planted with clematis, honeysuckle and roses. The entrance façade of the house overlooks an entirely different landscape, a scene of serenity with noble trees leading gently uphill to a lake. East of the lake are blood-red and orange rhododendrons and the banks of the lake are planted with long drifts of arum lily. This is one of the most attractive and stimulating gardens, where traditional features are carried off with exuberance and panache, and we have allowed plenty of time here to take everything in. Lunch is available here (not included).

Our second visit today is to the gardens of Grey Abbey House where we will see mature woods, borders and a southern hemisphere collection along with parkland meadows and fields. Part of the Chilean collection of plants and seeds from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh is held in the southern hemisphere garden, together with plants from Tasmania, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and Brazil, some of which have been collected by the present owners on their travels. The Walled Garden has been restored over the last twelve years, with a vegetable garden, late summer border and shrub rose border. The curved wall has been restocked with fan-trained fruit trees. The two orchards contain a collection of Victorian fruit trees, and a recently-planted collection of Irish apple trees.

Dinner is served back at our hotel in the evening.

Thursday 27 July 2017

After breakfast this morning, we check out of the hotel – please ensure any extras are paidprior to departure. We depart for a visit to the Belfast Botanic Gardens and Palm House. First established in 1828, the gardens have been enjoyed as a public park by the people of Belfast since 1895. There is an extensive rose garden and long herbaceous borders and the tree enthusiast can seek out the rare oaks planted in the 1880s, including the hornbeam-leafed oak. Designed by Charles Lanyon,The Palm House is one of the earliest examples of a curvilinear cast iron glasshouse and a fine example of horticultural Victoriana. Its construction was initiated by the Belfast Botanical and Horticultural Society in the 1830s. The two wings were completed in 1840, and were built by Richard Turner of Dublin, who later built the Great Palm House at Kew Gardens. Over the years, the Palm House has acquired a reputation for good plant collections such as geranium, fuchsia and begonia.

We will then enjoy some free time in Belfast with the opportunity to visit the Titanic Experience, a state-of-the-art, six storey living monument to Belfast’s moving maritime legacy, built at the head of the slipways from which Titanic was launched. The stories of the two great sister ships built and launched here, RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic, are told in a series of displays, including a ‘Titanic Experience' exhibition and an ‘immersive theatre', which simulates diving underwater to explore the wreck. Learn about the men who built the ship that was hailed as the “new wonder of the world” and gain an insight into their daily lives during the construction. Entry is not included and is payable on the day. Lunch is available here (not included).

Later in the day, we will return to Belfast Airport in time to check-in for our flight back to London Luton Airport (please refer to the enclosed ‘Travel Information’ sheet for full flight details).

Arrival at London Luton is due at 19.30hrs, where our coach will be waiting to return us to our original departure points.

WE HOPE YOU HAVE AN ENJOYABLE HOLIDAY