Glorious Gardens – Day Tour from Dublin
A glorious day trip exploring the wonderful gardens in and around Dublin. With a variety of gardens that will charm even the most exacting gardening enthusiast including formal gardens, wild gardens, walled gardens – each one is uniquely beautiful, with its own story to tell.
Our fun and knowledgeable guide will pick you up from your hotel and whisk you out of the city and to one of our favorite gardens. Only 40 minutes outside Dublin but a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Jimi Blakes Garden Hunting Brook Gardens
Nestled in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains, Hunting Brook Gardens is made up of five acres of contemporary exotic gardens and fifteen acres of woodland gardens and valley.
Designed to be a thoroughly immersive experience, the gardens are home to one of Ireland’s largest private collections of plants. A riot of colour, shape and texture, the gardens are always on the move with fresh surprises at every visit.
“Hunting Brook is a garden that is endlessly beguiling and however many times you visit it, you always find something new.”
– Monty Don
Then its on to June Blakes Garden just down the road.
Over the last fifteen years June Blake has created a garden of great character out of what was effectively a blank canvas: a garden that blends the familiar with the new, is inventive, dynamic and resonates with garden fans of all ages and backgrounds. The appeal lies in its size, just over 1.2 Hectares (3 acres) design, variety and the fact that, just like we like to try at home, it is continually being tweaked.
The garden is above all, one that can be experienced on different levels, whether by close examination of the exquisite planting, by wandering through the meadow to the shady borders and on to the vibrant flowerbeds or just enjoying the scene from a garden seat. For groups, all too often herded through gardens, June’s garden is an opportunity to explore, appreciate, to be inspired and surprised. As friends of the garden know too well the route of a path might have changed since the last visit opening up new views, a bench added so as to tempt you to linger that bit longer or flowerbeds subtly altered. So even if you think you know the garden look again, and check up on it from time to time.
Lunch at the Pantry @ Cliff at Lyons
Its all about the setting! On sunny days, there are al fresco tables on Dovecote Square, where you can enjoy lunch.
The vibrant menu includes a selection of nourishing house-made empanadas, toasties, wraps, along with fresh sandwiches with our own sourdough and Guinness breads or a savoury salad using the freshest of leaves from the gardens.
Finish off your lunch with a wide selection of fresh cakes and pastries, including some gluten-free items.
Cliff at Lyons is a meticulously restored tiny village dating from the late 18th century, replete with mill, dovecote, walled garden, gushing water features and cut-stone cottages sets the scene for this one-of-a-kind hotel on the banks of the Grand Canal in the rolling, velvety-green countryside of County Kildare.
In the afternoon we head too
Lodge Park Walled Garden is an 18th Century walled garden has been under restoration for the last few years. It boasts an array of wonderful featured such as brick-faced walls covered with fruit trees, roses and climbers, a South facing shrub border edged in box hedges and topiaried Yew trees running the length of the garden, a pond, vegetable area, walkway of sweet peas and much much more.
The greenhouse at Lodge Park Walled Garden has an unusual collection of plants from around the world.
Another exciting feature of the garden is the outstanding rosarie which is encountered on entering the orchard. Then you driver guide will return back to the city and drop you at your hotel.