Laois Garden Trail

Open as usual for the day.

Emo Court
The historic Emo Court was designed by James Gandon in 1790. 100 acres of parkland with formal lawns, mature trees and a nursery lake all located against the backdrop of a stately 18th century building.

Heywood Gardens
50 acres of woodland, lakes and formal gardens. The centrepiece of these gardens is the Lutyens Garden designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, and dating from 1912.

Castle Durrow
Demesne gardens with formal terraces, herbaceous borders, and a vegetable and flower garden with mixed annuals.

10:00am – Polytunnel Course
2:00pm – Summer Course

Although this garden was only established in 2005, it has already featured in the Farmers Journal, Irish Times and Irish Independent as well as Jane Powers’ book The Living Garden. Dunmore Country School has also featured on RTE’s Nationwide and Dermot’s Secret Garden. It covers approximately 1 acre. It is not a show garden, rather a working kitchen garden, which is dedicated to teaching. It is, in Tanguy’s words, “not a display garden but a garden in progress”.

Swan Rd, Swan, Durrow, Co. Laois
dunmorecountryschool.ie
+353 (0)57 873 6578

Guided tours of the garden throughout the day with Arthur Shackleton

A unique opportunity to be given a guided tour around Fruitlawn Garden outside Abbeyleix with its creator and designer, Arthur Shackleton, one of Ireland’s leading garden designers. This garden will appeal to all gardeners with its strong design and remarkable, eclectic collection of plants. There is also a Sales area full of exciting and unusual plants.

Fruitlawn, Abbeyleix, Co. Laois
arthurshackleton.com
+353 (0)57 873 0146

10:00am – Garden opens
11:00am & 3:30pm – Walk and Talk Workshops

An amazing oasis packed with interesting and unusual plants to lure and inspire both the keen plants person and the garden novice. Colourful herbaceous borders, a large rock garden and a well established collection of trees, shrubs, rhododendrons and deliciously perfumed old style roses. Enjoy the soothing ambience of still ponds and meandering streams. Whether you are a keen gardener, an armchair gardener or a visitor looking for an enjoyable day out, then Gash Gardens is for you.

Gash, Castletown, Portlaoise, Co. Laois
gashgardens.ie
+353 (0)87 272 8337 / +353 (0)57 873 2247

10:00am – Garden opens
11:00am & 3:30pm – Living Willow demonstrations

Colourful and intriguing gardens with Woodland and Herbaceous planting. Designed and begun in 2009 by Hazel Luskin Glennon challenged by her husband, the late Brendan Glennon to design a garden of 0.6 of an acre with no lawns for him to mow, she has turned a Turnip field into a lovely garden.

Gortnalee House, Donaghmore, Co. Laois
gortnaleegarden.com
+353 (0)505 48835

10:00am – Garden opens

The gardens were created by a team of people with intellectual disabilities and stimulate the senses. Vibrant plants appeal to the sense of sight, while hearing is reached through wind chimes and a humming stone. There are also scented plants and those with interesting textures. This is a garden with a history, which provides a peaceful haven of spiritual and sensory nourishment and contemplation for the visitor.

Dove House, Main Street, Abbeyleix, Co. Laois
discoverireland.ie/Arts-Culture-Heritage/the-sensory-gardens
+353 (0)505 48835

10:00am – Garden opens

A biodiversity Garden and Woodland of about 1 acre. Designed and created by the owner in 2009 and made up of a courtyard garden, a stream supporting wildlife, small orchard, enclosed vegetable garden, pond garden, border beds and an open native woodland with water. The garden is designed with climate change in mind, is low maintenance and easily adapted to any domestic situation.

Selous Lodge, Douneen, Stradbally, Co. Laois
+353 (0)87 283 6771

11:00am – Garden opens
2:00pm – Garden tour on garden design and planting plans with challenging conditions

Clonohill Gardens are the splendid creation of floral artist Enda Thompson-Phelan, and feature many interesting and unusual plants on a one acre site surrounding Clonohill House. The Gardens have been designed and developed to enhance the existing landscape with many mature trees providing a shady home for woodland treasures.

Clonohill Gardens, Coolrain, Co. Laois
laoisanglingcentre.ie
+353 (0) 87-9962864

Picnic at Ballintubbert Gardens
€15 per car or €5 per adult

A beautiful Arts and Crafts garden where visitors experience simplicity and complexity at the same time. Relaxing, but at times challenging, this 14 acre space stimulates the senses and the imagination.

Ballintubbert, Stradbally, Co. Laois
ballintubbert.com
+353 (0)41 988 4771