Saintfield House has a fine old monkey puzzle, one of the earliest planted in Northern Ireland. In an illuminated address presented in 1902 to Major J.N. Blackwood Price (whose family are still there) the monkey puzzle is shown to be a good size even then – it is now about 70’ tall, with a mini offspring at its base.
Discovered in 1795, when botanist Archibald Menzies on board the Discovery was given some of the nuts, the tree was introduced to Victorian gardens some years later once enough specimens had been propagated. This links well with the apparently 40 year old tree painted around 1900.