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Strokestown Park House & Garden

Garden

Restored walled gardens on historic estate

Address:

Strokestown
Co Roscommon

About Tarmonbarry

Tel: +353 71 963 3013

Please mention ireland-guide.com when enquiring.

Strokestown Park House & 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:
Admission Charge:

Appointment Only
Admission Charge

Georgina Campbell

The great south border in the restored six acre walled garden at Strokestown Park is a happy tribute to changed times. Colour keyed, with planting running through the shades of the spectrum from sizzling red hot pokers and blazing ligularia to coolest blue delphiniums, the 18 foot deep bed has put Strokestown on the map as the garden with the longest borders in these islands.

Strokestown’s previous claim to record breaking fame was to have the widest street in Ireland built for the 2nd Lord Hartland in an attempt to rival Vienna’s Ringstrasse, and to establish the pre-eminence of the Pakenham Mahon family who owned the estate from the 17th century to the 1970s.

In 1979 Westward Motors acquired the estate, conserved the house and contents which had become frozen in the amber of time, and opened it to the public together with a Famine Museum in the former stables. The garden was the final, triumphant phase of restoration, very little was left of the previous Edwardian incarnation but, with the aid of funding from the Great Gardens Restoration Scheme, the garden was reinterpreted with a design by Helen Dillon and Jim Reynolds.

The visit opens with a vista down the garden - seen through decorative gates given to Olive Pakenham as an engagement present in 1914 - to a vista closer folly overlooking a lily pond. Beech hedges were used to create compartments for the different areas of the garden, which include an ABC sculpture walk with appropriate sculptures in leafy niches, a winter garden, a fernery and a winter cutting garden.

A rose garden with cluster flowered reliables like ‘Trumpeter ‘and’ Sexy Rexy’ is overlooked by a raised viewing point surrounded by a pergola. Period details like the tennis court and croquet lawn, redolent of the leisured era of the ‘big house’, have been retained - and the most recent phase of restoration has taken in the vegetable garden and the old glass house, with the additional feature of a Georgian teahouse.

Best time of year to visit: June, July, August