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Kilravock Garden

Garden

Seaside garden laid out as a series of informal themed rooms, with stream, ferneries and sorbus walk.

Address:

Durrus
Co Cork

About Durrus

Tel: +353 27 61111

Please mention ireland-guide.com when enquiring.

Kilravock Garden

Opening Months:
Opening Days:
Opening Hours: By Appointment (or open on 14-29 June, 12-5pm) always call to check times
Admission Charge: €6

Appointment Only
Admission Charge

Georgina Campbell

Phemie Rose started the West Cork Gardening Trail in association with the Harold Barry Trust to show others just what could be done And the paradise Phemie has created with her husband Malcolm is proof indeed of just how special gardens there can be thanks to the benign climate.

Kilravock manages the hat trick, winning on all three counts of design, interest and an amazing collection of plants, many of them from the southern hemisphere. The Roses began work on their two and a half acres over 10 years ago. It wasn’t an easy site and it was two years before they discovered they had the stream which is now a central feature, flowing into pools and along rills.

Laid out as a series of informal rooms the garden leads from an Oriental area which takes advantage of natural rock formations and features a host of acers and a curved bridge built by Malcolm, through a stream garden with hosts of primulas and hostas. Unusual species like the palm Butia captitata, and Hakea saligna prosper in mild shelter, a rill runs beside the fernery with exotic specimens like the graceful tree ferns Cycathei cooperii/medullaris and smithii, the peacock like Blechnum tabulareand the Chinese lace fern.

The clever layout of the garden means that it is full of surprises and enchanting internal vistas. Malcom specialises in ferns, cordylines and sorbus (he has an azalea and sorbus walk carpeted with spring bulbs and with five Irish cultivars, including the rare S‘Molly Saunderson’ ); Phemie grows Southern hemisphere plants from seed, including South African restios like Elegia capensis .

The big surprise is the Mediterranean garden with mosaic feature as the central focal point. It’s miniature wonderland with plants that get curiouser and curiouser, there’s the laughing plant Cotyledon orbiculata, spiky fans of Puya chilensis. rosettes of Aloe striataand a palm with personality known as the ‘Green Goddess’

Best time of year to visit: