Dublin City DUBLIN 14

Indian Brasserie

Yellow House, The

Airfield Gardens

In their day the late Misses Overend, Letitia (b.1880) and Naomi (b.1900) were a legend. There are lots of colourful recollections about the sisters from the way they gave lifts to local school children who were able to recite the registration numbers of their wonderful vintage cars, to their involvement with the St John’s Ambulance Brigade.

Airfield, where the sisters ran a model farm with a herd of jersey cows, is their legacy to the city and was left in trust to the public. The gardens around the 1820s house now reflect both the old world charm of a long established garden and a bold new planting scheme very much in the pioneering spirit of the sisters.

In the walled garden at the heart of the estate, the contrast between the traditional cruciform layout of paths edged in precision clipped box and the blowsy newcomers - burly rudbeckias, Salvia sclarea turkestanica, statuesque artichokes, Maclea cordataand a host of shimmering swaying grasses - is brilliant. Like happy champagne drunks, the plants refuse to behave primly and there is the odd surprise guest - banana palms and the glistening black berries of the Joe Pie-plant to liven things up even further.

In the midst of all this exuberant display the rectangular sections laid out around a circle of hornbeam contain traditional rosaries planted with old roses like R‘Souvenir de St Annes RComte de Chambord, ‘Fantin Latour’ Rde Rescht, an orchard with unusual fruits like medlars and mulberries, a knot garden of herbs, and a lily pond. The tea garden on the terrace looks out over a U shaped bed of yet more exotic planting with Verbena bonariensis, Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus’ and Ferna Osten.

Guarded by an art deco gate twined with a wrought iron serpent, the yew walk with corseted Florencecourt yews has an exotic shrub border (the green catkins of Itea ilicifoliaand the glory flower Clerodendrum bungei are particularly eye catching) and leads on to the soothing lawns where Wellingtonians sweep the grass with their skirts.

On the far side of the walled garden, frost tender plants like aeoniums and tibuchina have their summer break outside the green house; there an inspirational garden packed with new grasses whispers to herbaceous plants,(sedums, Japanese anemones echiums and heleniums) around wood chip paths.

And beyond are walks that invite exploration, past the orchard patrolled by speckled hens and geese, past the Garden Heaven Vegetable Garden, round the boundaries, through the flower meadow, or round the evocatively named Golden Path.

With a farm and car museum, paddocks with Thelwellesque ponies and a thoughtfully provided picnic area, there is a lot to see and do on family outings.

 

Glendale Gardens

There is nothing like a new bed as any gardener knows, and in Noelle Anne’s garden there is bound to be some exciting new addition. Within this beautifully conceived plan there are five gardens within a third of an acre full of intriguing ideas.

A pergola swagged with creamy white R‘Alberic Barbier’, ingeniously trained on chains, acts as the main lateral axis of the garden. Beneath this, contained by meticulously trimmed box, is a potager of salads and herb and beyond are three gardens within a garden. Designed by Dominic Murphy in brick and gravel, with a terracotta urn as a focal point, the Mediterranean garden has raised beds with all manner of tender silver leaved plants from eidelweiss to celmisias sheltering under a Cornus‘Eddies White Wonder’. Frost tender plants in pots - like a protea and an agave spend their winters in the convenient shelter of Noelle Anne’s Alpine house.

The ‘see through’ formal garden with low planting and a shimmering veil of Stipa giganteaand Verbena bonariensisallows a view through the garden from a sunset bench. In the formal area statue Edwina has silver plants Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’ and Artemesia ‘Powis Castle’ at her feet. And the stream garden, designed by Peter Boland of Vision Landscapes, offers a real ‘wow factor’ with water magically appearing to flow from a distant point under a bridge.

Elsewhere in the garden there is a fernery, a traditional garden featuring a herbaceous border in a symphony of pinks, and a pond garden frothing with alchemilla where a heron and angel’s fishing rods lean over burbling water.

Overends Kitchen at Airfield Estate

Arch Bistro, The

Castle Golf Club

Castle Golf Club is a rolling parkland golf course playing to 6,246 yards and a par of 70, with firm fairways that are heavily featured by mature trees, Harry Colt's design includes five par-3s and three very achievable par-5s.

In 1999 a major upgrade to the facilities at the Club, both on and off the course, was begun. Working with Jeff Howes, the Course Development committee oversaw reconstruction of all eighteen greens to USGA sand-based standard.

The project included a major upgrade to the practice putting area and realignment of some fairways to fit in with the new greens.

The clubhouse was extended and completely refurbished in 2001/2002, raising the standard of the facilities to match those on the golf course.

Al's Fish Shop

Rathfarnham Castle

Dating back to the Elizabethan period Rathfarnham Castle with its four flanker towers is an excellent example of the fortified house in Ireland. In the late 18th century, the house was re-modeled on a splendid scale employing some of the finest architects of the day.

While the Berkeley Costume and Toy Collection is an exquisite collection of 18th and 19th century toys, dolls and costumes that are brought to life in the magnificent setting of the castle.