Parks & Gardens

In the ‘Garden of Ireland’, Co Wicklow, Mount Usher is a place of careful but informal planting in keeping with the surrounding countryside.

The relatively recent addition of an Avoca Hand Weavers store and café has made the gardens even more of a destination, and it would be very easy to spend the best part of a day here.

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Located in the wonderful Phoenix Park, Dublin Zoo is one of Ireland’s most popular visitor attractions and is a perennial kid’s favourite.

The zoo is involved in many international breeding programmes for endangered species, which means there are always baby animals to see. But despite all the exotic animals on show, a favourite spot for many is the Pets Corner, where domestic animals live.

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This is the way a zoo should be – with animals kept in large enclosures designed to emulate their natural habitats – not just better for the animals but more enjoyable for the people too.

The animals are mostly those who adapt easily to being outdoors in an Irish climate, with apes, cheetahs and giraffe the biggest draws, though the tame kangaroos were the hit of our visit.

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Ireland’s largest and best collection of rare trees and shrubs is found on Fota Island near Cork city. For those who love trees it’s an essential place to visit and, as you might expect, the Autumn is a great time to go.

The house, which is open to the public, is also well worth visiting.

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Lakemount is a beautifully kept herbaceous garden which is evidently owned by someone with a huge love of plants.

The garden is the work of one man, Brian Cross, and is a domestic garden, albeit a particularly large one. So, if you have an anyway decent patch of ground, you could have a garden like this too. In theory.

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A lush, green garden full of surprises, Garnish is on an Island in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cork. Its unique climatic conditions mean it grows plants and trees not seen elsewhere in Ireland, many normally more at home in the tropics.

The Island is reached by boat, an adventure in itself, and you’ll almost certainly spot seals basking on the rocks on the short journey from Glengarrif.

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Altamount Gardens is a place apart, a wonderland of interconnecting gardens, riverside walks and woodlands of incredible beauty and peacefulness.

It change remarkably through the seasons, and is particularly lovely in late Spring, when the rhododendrons are in bloom, and early Autumn when the trees are in glorious colour.

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A 19th century castle built in a Norman style, Gosforth in Co Armagh is surrounded by excellent walks and trails trough its gardens, woodlands, arboretum and rare breeds farm.

The castle is one of the largest ever built in Ireland and although it looks Norman was in fact built by a relatively impoverished nobleman with big ideas in the 19th century.

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