Glin Castle & Pleasure Grounds

Opening Months: March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November
Opening Days: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Opening Hours: By Appointment
Admission Charge: €5

• Appointment Only
• Admission Charge

The fortunes of the Norman FitzGerald family and their various castles stretching back to 1197 rises and falls like the tides in the Shannon estuary beyond the sugar white castellated house. The history of the garden is relatively recent, dating to the time the present house was built in 1780. The 25th Knight of Glin, John Fraunceis FitzGerald, known as the Knight of the Women, embellished the estate in the 1820s with the walled garden, woods, Gothic lodges, a folly and a hermitage in the pleasure grounds. It was restored with additions by the grandmother and mother of the present Knight of Glin, Desmond FitzGerald.

The formal lawn, with curlicues of yew around a sundial terrace, is bordered with flowering shrubs cherries, magnolias, cornus, Drimys winterii and hydrangeas - before giving way to the wilder areas. There is a hill dancing with daffodils in spring, carpets of bluebells under moss covered oaks, tree ferns and bamboos in the dappled shade around the hermitage, and a ring of mock standing stones in the pleasure ground.

The productive walled garden is laid out with traditional cruciform paths and a yew walk marching down the centre. In the kitchen garden and orchard sections all manner of fruit and vegetables are grown for the castle table, where guests are offered every imaginable treat, from asparagus to sea kale. Recent additions include a Gothic hen house and a rustic temple sheltering a statue of Andromeda and the Edwardian seat overlooking a pond is a good place to drink in the perfection of it all.

Not only are the gardens a joy, but the house is also open for visits at certain times - and it is a wonderful place to stay (Mar-Nov); when the Knight is at home he will take visitors on a tour of the house, which has superb interiors and decorative plasterwork, and show them all his wonderful pictures and old furniture. And, not to be missed while in Glin is Thomas O’Shaughnessy’s Pub (Tel 068 34115), just outside the castle walls; one of the finest pubs in Ireland, it is now in its sixth generation of family ownership and precious little has changed in the last hundred years - except that the gardens hidden away at the back have been given a lot of TLC in recent years.
 

Best time of year to visit: April, May

Gardens Strengths

Pleasure grounds, walled kitchen garden (supplies bulk of veg to kitchen); cutting borders

Rare Plants worth mentioning

Specimen conifers, red cedars, Chilean lantern bush, Persian Ironwood, NZ Kowhai, Magnolia

Groups & Tours

• Groups Accepted
• Groups Need Appointments
• Accept Only Groups
• Guided Tours

Minimum Group Size:

10

Tour Days:

Tour Times

By Appointment

Additional

Trails

Limerick Garden Trail - Includes Boyces garden, Knockpatrick, Ballinacourty, Celtic Gardens

Events

Open day in conjunction with National Heritage Week; also a Gardening weekend in May 08

Other Facilities

Dogs welcome on a lead.