Two beautiful gardens to visit for an autumn stroll

MY visits to gardens in County Waterford continue this week, with a trip to Cappoquin House and Tourin House, both situated close to Cappoquin town, famous for its coarse angling along the banks of the Blackwater, one of the longest rivers in Ireland at 168km from start to finish.

The Blackwarer rises in the Mullaghareirk mountains in Co. Kerry, and then flows eastwards through Kerry, Cork and Waterford, turning south at Cappoquin to enter the sea at Youghal.

Along the way, it creates a very scenic backdrop for the situating of gardens, particularly at its later stages when it broadens out and flows lazily towards the sea.

Cappoquin House is situated above the town on a south-facing slope, and it has been in the Keane family since 1735, purchased from the Boyles of Lismore by John Keane, a solicitor from Dungarvan.

The house stands on the site of a Fitzgerald Castle and was built in the late 18th century in the Georgian style and rebuilt as recently as the 1920s after fire damage.

The gardens were laid out in the mid-19th century and there are elements of earlier designs evident throughout, in the form of walls, gateways and streams.

The gardens at as they exist today are largely credited to Olivia Keane, who revived the gardens after many years of neglect from 1956 onwards.

Her son Charles has continued to invest and develop the garden, along with gardener Mark Windross. Charles believes that repetition is an important element in making the garden work and flow well.

The main focus for new planting is to ensure that there is something to see throughout the year, and it is not just a spring garden.

Also, lots of the pruning work gets done in this garden during the winter months, ensuring good regeneration and healthy growth.

The garden is made up of a series of intimate spaces with specimen trees abounding - acers, oaks, walnut, ginkgo, pine, ash, yew, lime, cryptomeria and cedars are just some of the magnificent specimens growing in the gardens near the house.

The gardens comprise about six acres in total, the upper pleasure gardens sloping up behind the house and courtyard, and the lower gardens located adjacent to the house.

On arrival, there is a small area of parking near a most beautiful courtyard surrounded by clematis, wisteria and climbing roses, magnolia and, rhododendron.

It did help that it was a lovely warm and sunny morning on the day that I visited, and the low autumn morning light gave a lovely glow to the garden.

Some trees had begun to put their autumn colours on show, particularly some specimen acers.

There are trees of all ages in this garden, dating back hundreds of years and recently planted, which gives great hope for the future.

The pleasure gardens wind up around the back of the house and courtyard onto gently terraced areas of tree and shrub planting.

There is a walled garden which is not open to the public, with pear espaliers laden with fruit on the south-facing outer wall.

There are also 100 acres of orchards planted with eating apples, which were being harvested at the time of visiting.

You are guided through the garden with cleverly mown pathways, which manoeuvre the visitor gently around the area. There are a number of routes which can be taken, all revealing different trees of note along the way, pinus montezuma, fraxinus excelsior ‘Pendula’, and fagus sylvatica ‘Pendula’ are all of note in the upper pleasure gardens.

There is some herbaceous planting and roses along a wall as you descend, leading you into an area with a collection of azalea, hydrangea, rhododendron and notofagus before crossing the driveway to enter the gardens adjacent to the front of the house.

The sunken garden takes pride of place here, with its symmetrical planting of herbaceous perennials, peonies and roses. It was looking very colourful with heleniniums putting on quite the show in September.

This area commands a great view over the countryside beyond. Views are framed by fine specimens of cedar and aak. An excellent space adjacent to the house for relaxing and entertaining.

The garden is open from 10am until 4pm except Sundays all year round.

A short trip down the road will take you to Tourin House, home to the Jamesons. It is an Italianate design, completed in 1841, and the gardens date back to the original dwelling house, Tourin Castle, which was built in 1560.

There are about 25 acres of gardens, which include woodland walks, and the broad walk, a fashionable element in Victorian times. This links the house to the pleasure gardens and walled garden.

The pleasure gardens are home to azaleas, rhododendrons, acers, hostas and geraniums. The rock garden is located here too with many alpine plants carpeting the ground in springtime.

Much of the planting seen today is the work of the present owner’s mother, Didi Jameson. A keen plants woman, she introduced a lot of rare and unusual specimens to the garden.

The walled garden was built in the 18th century to supply the Tower house with fruit, vegetables and flowers. It is open to the public and home to a mixture of edible and ornamental with plenty of fruit ripening at the start of September.

There is an impressive collection of more than 100 bearded iris growing here, a sight to behold in early summer. From the walled garden, there is a walk that goes through the stable yard and past the tower house, through some newly planted areas of woodland onto the banks of the Blackwater as it heads for the sea called Tourin Quay.

For more information about opening times and admission fees, check out www.tourin.ie