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Kilmacurragh Arboretum - National Botanic Garden

Garden

Kilmacurragh is a most exciting place to visit, for here you can time travel between the plant hunting of the Victorian era and see the results of today’s plant hunting in action.

Address:

Kilbride
Co Wicklow

About Redcross

Contact Kilmacurragh Arboretum - National Botanic Garden

Tel: +353 1 875 0909

Please mention ireland-guide.com when enquiring.

Kilmacurragh Arboretum - National Botanic Garden

Opening Months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
Opening Days: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Opening Hours: Summer - Mon-Sat 9-6 Sun 11-6; Winter (Mid-Nov to Mid-Feb) - Mon-Sat 9-4.30 Sunday 11-4.30
Admission Charge:

Appointment Only
Admission Charge

Georgina Campbell

Kilmacurragh is a most exciting place to visit, for here you can time travel between the plant hunting of the Victorian era and see the results of today’s plant hunting in action.

Grown from seed gathered in the wild, some of the new introductions at the 52 acre arboretum are so rare that they may be the only one or two of their kind in Europe or even the Northern Hemisphere. Different areas of the arboretum are devoted to trees and shrubs different regions so that you find yourself in Chile one moment and the Himalayas the next.

Some of critically endangered species are on trial here too, under co-operative schemes with Botanical Gardens like Kew and Edinburgh. Monkey puzzle trees, for instance, now so rare in Chile that they are a national monument, are being grown at Kilmacurragh from seed collected by Edinburgh Botanical Gardens.

The new planting is part of a conservation scheme for plants from South America, Himalayas, China and native Irish species. In a direct link with the plant hunters of the past , plants from the heritage collection at Kilmacurragh’ like Rhododendron rosacea ( first collectd by Joseph Hooker in 1849 and grown at Glasnevin Botanical Gardens in 1850) are being propagated here.

Alongside the new are the old survivors of one of Ireland’s earliest and most important collections of trees and shrubs: among them the famous rhododendron walk, a great aisle of Rhododendron arboreum carpeted with crimson petals in spring , an enormous tiger tailed spruce with jaunty upturned branches and the great Chilean laurel shedding scented golden leaves.

At the time Thomas Acton and his sister Jane created the garden in the 19th C they subscribed to plant hunting expeditions and had connections with botanic gardens and nurseries like Veitch of London which brought in newly discovered exotic species.

Thanks to their friendship with David Moore and his son Sir Frederick Moore curators of the National Botanic Garden’s at Glasnevin (unsuitable for growing acid loving plants,) Kilmacurragh became home to the national rhododendron collection.

The Acton family sold the property in 1944 and after a variety of owners the Arboretum is now managed by Glasnevin Botanical Garden under the umbrella of the heritage section of the OPW. There is a great deal more happening here under the management of curator Seamus O’Brien, wild flower meadows have been reinstated, already over 90 different species have reappeared, there is a fossil lawn planted with trees once thought to be extinct and thousand upon thousands of bulbs have been planted for wondrous spring effect.

Spectacular herbaceous borders have been planted with banana, grapefruit and new plants brought back from Seamus’ plant expeditions to Chile, China and Nepal.

The story of Kilmacurragh stretches back to early Christian times, the lake once existed as a fish pond for a monastery dissolved by Henry VIII. The house sadly in dire need of restoration is a rare Irish example of the Queen Anne period, and the cobbled road to Wexford taken by Cromwell’s men still runs through a great avenue of oaks.

Open daily except Dec 25, guided tours except in Winter

Best time of year to visit: