Co. Kildare ATHY

Coursetown Country House

Tonlegee House & Restaurant

Carlton Abbey Hotel

AA ATHY

Bert House

Approached via a long tree lined avenue, Bert  House was built in 1709 by Thomas Burgh and remained the home of his descendants for 200 years. It stands in a scenic location on the banks of the River Barrow within easy reach of Dublin City (approximately one hour’s drive via the N7). Athy 2.5 miles, Dublin City centre 47 miles. 

This wedding venues been extensively restored, retaining many of its original period features and charm.  The main reception rooms are very grand and imposing with very fine plasterwork ceilings, marble fireplaces and mahogany doors with gilded handles.  

There are racecourses at Naas, Punchestown and the Curragh, the centre of the Irish racing and breeding industry.  The River Barrow is a popular cruising river that also links up with the River Shannon cruising system via the Grand Canal.  It runs by the bottom of the Italian garden.  There are championship golf courses at Mount Juliet,The K-Club,The Heritage and Mount Wolseley.

Burtown House Gardens

Part of the pleasure at Burtown is the sense of discovery, for there are a great many features waiting to be found behind hedges and around corners. At their heart is a 300 year old house surrounded by the legacy of previous generations much created by Isabel Shackleton, cousin of explorer Ernest, who planted the great sweep of golden aconites beneath the trees in early spring.

Mainly the creation of artist Lesley Fennell, this garden provides inspiration for her paintings and the planting, like the herbaceous border filled with the blues and yellows of campanulas, scabious and unusual herbaceous clematis, reflects her painter’s eye.

Island beds around the lawn with mixed planting of shrubs and perennials have reminders of the great and good of the garden world: A mulberry tree, grown from its ancient parent in the Provost’s garden at Trinity College, an Oregon Maple, a seedling from the great tree in Front Square in Trinity College: as Sydney Maskell’s blue abutilon, the late Corona North’s hoheria alongside promiscuously interbreeding tree peonies and blushing old roses.

Elsewhere there is a wonderful collection of viticella clematis, a collections of old scented phlox, unusual herbaceous plants, some from the former Shackleton Garden at Beech Park. A rockery garden filled with dierama, hellebores, dwarf cyclamen, where a double flowering cherry is reflected in a pool and a contemplation garden with bronzes by sculptor Catherine Greene.

Plans for new features are ongoing : a woodland garden, once part of an old pleasure garden, with carpets of anemonies and trilliums ihas been developed on an island with interesting marginal planting on the banks of the encircling stream.

Burtown is a productive place in every sense: the late Wendy Walsh, acclaimed botanical artist, had her studio and home here, set in a crescent of borders shading from silver blue to yellow orange and including many plants which she was given to plant and later planted out in the garden.

Grandson, the photographer James Fennell, has been restoring the walled vegetable garden with organic produce destined for delicious lunches for visitors cooked by his wife Joanna (café hours as for garden), and Lesley Fennell’s own courtyard studio is open to visitors. The Quaker Village of Ballytore and the High Cross at Moone are just nearby, altogether a great place for a day out.

Castlefarm

Moyleabbey Organic Farm

Clanard Court Hotel

Burtown House, Green Barn and Gardens

Novaks