Ballindoolin House and Gardens
Ballindoolin House and Gardens
Edenderry, Co. Offaly
Tel: 046 973 1430
Fax: 046 973 2377
Email: sundial@iol.ie
Web: www.ballindoolin.com
Ballindoolin is a beautiful demesne offering the almost unique opportunity to visit an interesting nineteenth- centruy house, farmyard and gardens still inits original natural -style surroundings. Facilities include bus park, craft shop, museum and coffee shop. Tours of house, farmyard and nature trail.
Gate Lodge
A very fine example of Greek Revival architecture with a cut stone portico. Behind the portico is a recess with two doors leading into each of the main two rooms, one was designed as a bedroom and the other as a living room. The Gate Lodge and nearby railings were a design proposal (unexecuted) by Sir Richard Morris for the Earl of Abercorn's Baronscourt in Co.Tyrone. It is a big mystery as to how the Morrison office, could habeen involved with Ballindoolin
The Garden
The walled garden was created with the house in 1822. It was built at the beginning of the modern garden era, as we know it today, before then natural landscapes were popular around large country houses.
In 1822 Scot J. C. Loudon published his "Encyclopedia of Gardening" containing instructions for all the various garden elements which became fashionable in the 19th century and all these elements can be seen at Ballindoolin; the rockery, shrubbery, glasshouse, rose garden and massed carpet bedding which lent itself to the planting of parterres in a formal manner.
The 18th century landscape gardener Lancelot "Capability" Brown designed "natural" landscapes by using clumps and belts of trees to enhance the natural countryside, this can be seen in Ballindoolin looking West from the Iron Age Mound on the nature trail. The woods were planted around this time and it is possible that the Dove Côte was built as a ruin to compliment the natural wild look of the landscape. The ha-ha or sunken ditch which surrounds the land at the front of Ballindoolin House is a barrier to livestock but gives the illusion of continuous fields stretching into the distance from the front door of the house.
In 1870 William Robinson was the first to believe that the qualities of plants should influence their position in the garden, an idea that the famous lady gardener Gertrude Jekyll put to good use in her graduating colour borders, very similar to our south facing herbaceous border.
After the first world war labour became increasingly expensive, and many beautiful gardens became neglected due to decreasing family fortunes, and large scale planting of shrubs as ground cover to reduce maintenance became popular. The Ballindoolin gardens shared the same sad fate, over the years the walled garden and pleasure gardens became almost completely overgrown and deserted.
