Tuesday – The Grounds of Bantry house

The sun was now shining brightly as we entered Bantry.

We followed the very nice road along the bay and thought we might have missed the sign at one point as according to our map we should have been there. We pulled over and asked a young girl where we might find it. She got a funny look on her face and pointed up the road.

When we looked we saw the sign that we really should have seen as it was a very good size to be seen about 50 yards ahead. We thanked her and felt silly. Just a little bit farther and we would have made it on our own. Oh well.

Our entrance ticket in included a map to the grounds that were quite extensive. We planned our route.

The woodland walk was wonderful following a little stream. The path was mostly in the shade of tall trees and there were a few wet spots that had to be navigated as it had rained earlier. The end of the path brought us to the walled garden, which back in the 17 and 1800’s was where the manor house grew all its food.

It was a very large garden area surrounded by, you guessed it, walls, and was now being used as a community garden using only a small portion of the land, growing only a fraction of what it most probably once did.

After taking a few photos and looking for the rare trees that were in our map and brochure we followed the woodland path back on the other side of the stream and past the east stables where we headed up to the old ladies

walk .

We found this amusing as we are not exactly old yet but if we had been alive back then we would have been old. We took it thinking that it would be an easier route. I don’t know if it was easier as it didn’t seem all that easy to me. Old ladies must have been in good shape way back then. That brought us to the carriage drive.

Well if they ever drove carriages on that little path they must have been small carriages. They were probably wider at one time but had gotten narrower from not being driven on. The carriage drive brought us to look down on the terraced gardens.

The view was spectacular, the whole bay, the house and the terraces and The gardens on the other side of the house. There was a sign “Take at own Risk” that warned of the dangers of treading the stairs down to the terraces so of course we took the stairs.

Each level had its own charm.

At the bottom was a formal garden and in the center of that, encircled by a high trellis of wisteria, a lovely pool with a fountain of fish and shells in the center.

We enjoyed the garden for quite some time noting the symetry and the balance of the boxwood hedges, the soft trickling sounds of the fountain,the butterfly that fluttered its way across the pool.

I love formal gardens. Well actually I love all gardens and so does Maureen. Flowers everywhere and, well, I want one in my yard scaled down of course. It was fantastic.