- ireland -

Jump to Content

Aultaghreagh Cottage Garden

A one acre garden packed with inspirational ideas and interesting plants.

Dunmanway
Co Cork
Tel: 023 55307

Aultaghreagh Cottage Garden

Opening Months: June, July, August
Opening Days: Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Opening Hours: May 27 to End August; 11am - 5pm (closed Mondays ); Appointment needed (except 14-29 June)
Admission Charge: €5

Appointment Only
Admission Charge

There’s nothing more encouraging than visiting enthusiasts’ gardens, especially when starting a new garden. Christine and Les Wilson have had a wonderfully inventive approach to their one acre hilltop garden which is packed with choice plants and interesting ideas.

Features like their 100 foot double herbaceous borders grab the attention. Filled with perennials, mainly grown from seed: oriental poppies, Noble series lupins, thalictrum, campanulas, asters aconitum, agapanthus and choice crocosmias like ‘Emily McKenzie’ have the Nowen and Shehy mountains as a backdrop.

Their pond garden and waterfall are a magnet for wildlife, the red waterlily ‘Escarboucle’ rules the centre of the pond, in the margins are Iris ensata, flags and marsh marigolds.

A small walled garden area with a grotto provides shelter for tender plants; it has a ‘hot’ side and a ‘cool’ side, where the accent is on the accent on bluey green foliage with eucalyptus, guara and ozmanthus. A south wall border offers a display of Liatris spicata, Ceanothus ‘Autumnal Blue’ and Callistemon‘Captain Cook’, tiger flowers and Indigofera heterantha.

Part woodland, the garden also features a vegetable and fruit garden, a herb parterre, a willow arbour and a grass garden, all within the cleverly integrated whole.

Best time of year to visit: June, July, August