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 […]
Historic Trees
These trees are associated with historic events or characters.
They may have been silent witnesses to the signing of peace treaties or bloody battles.
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 […]