The hotel at Dunadry is a very up market establishment, catering to the famous personalities of the day. Its patrons may choose to enjoy the gardens and indulge in the age-old tradition of sitting and talking under a sheltering tree – surely more conducive to peace and reconciliation than a meeting room indoors. What appears […]
Campaign Souvenir at Seaforde
The gardens of Seaforde include a great range of trees and shrubs from old estate plantings to recent introductions made by Patrick Forde after botanical expeditions to Bhutan, North Vietnam and China – not forgetting the extra entertainment of the maze. One champion dominates the walled garden known as the Pheasantry. This is a Crimean […]
The Hezlett House Tree
One tree suggested as a hanging tree is outside Hezlett House at Castlerock, a National Trust property. The story was never of a hanging, but of the threat of this grim fate, and even this is denied by the family. The Hezlett House tree is an old sweet chestnut, now on the grassy roadside verge […]
The Liberty Tree
At Roughfort near Mallusk in Co Antrim is a tree which carries all this history. Local historians link this tree to the 1798 United Irishmen uprising, Roughfort being one of the assembly, points prior to marching on to the Battle of Antrim. Newtownabbey Borough Council in conjunction with local historians is currently, promoting a book […]
The Bloody Oak
One oak that seems to have its chance of survival severely curtailed is still triumphantly with us and is worth a tiny detour off the Armagh to Loughgall road. The small settlement of Salter’s Grange is marked by a hilltop Church of Ireland church with a soaring spire (probably on the site of an older […]
The Manna Aah
The manna ash has twisty branches with twigs bending downwards, dark smooth bark and a dense canopy of dark green leaves. It is not like a weeping ash (also grown as a graft) which is a form of the common ash Fraxinus excelsior. The manna ash Fraxinus ornus is quite different and bears creamy-white fragrant […]
Newcomers at Saintfield
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 […]
Two Fine Parasols at Parkanaur
Parkanaur in Co Tyrone is typical of forests with a house and gardens which include some fine specimen trees of varied species. In the parkland, these fine trees shade the unique herd of white fallow deer, descended from a herd in Co Cork which were a present from Queen Elizabeth I in the sixteenth century. […]
The Gardener’s Pride at Drum
Drum Manor in Co Tyrone repays exploration with fine trees hidden away including a beech avenue and a stand of beech in a shelter belt recorded by Alan Mitchell as some of the tallest in Northern Ireland. Just in front of the gardener’s house is a lovely example of the Tulip tree Liriodendron sp. The […]
Her Ladyship’s Tree
Beside the leisure centre in Bangor is a mulberry tree, an unusual species here where the climate rarely allows it to produce its flavourful deep red berries. This tree was primarily grown for its leaves, which are the food plant for silk-worms. The story is that the Lady of the Manor, the Hamilton family in […]