Choose your language:

- ireland -

Tullynally Castle & Gardens

Garden

Extensive pleasure grounds at Tullynally Castle, home of the Pakenham family since the 17th century

Address:

Castlepollard
Co Westmeath

About Castlepollard

Tel: +353 44 61159

Please mention ireland-guide.com when enquiring.

Tullynally Castle & Gardens

Opening Months: May, June, July, August
Opening Days:
Opening Hours: By Appointment or open weekends May/June & Bank Hols and daily 1 Jul-17 Aug, 2-6pm
Admission Charge: Adults €6.00, Children €3 Families €16.00

Appointment Only
Admission Charge

Georgina Campbell

The extensive pleasure grounds at Tullynally Castle, home of the Pakenham family since the 17th century, have seen whole chapters of garden history unfold. The earliest incarnation of the garden was in the Baroque manner with cascades, canals and trees marshalled into formal blocks. This was supplanted in the tide of enthusiasm for “improvements” by landscaping in the romantic style which included a serpentine waterway known as the “River Sham”.

Further legacies of gardening history include Georgian greenhouses with intriguing fish scale glass, a grotto and a walled garden with a Victorian weeping pillar. Gardening enthusiasm continues in the present generation and Thomas and Valerie Pakenham have undertaken an ongoing programme of restoration aided by FAS workers. True to the theory that men and women tend to have different gardening styles Thomas Pakenham, author of Remarkable Trees and founder member of The Irish Tree Society, is passionate about trees.

There is an arboretum with 43 different varieties of acer,magnolias and a handkerchief tree. Valerie, on the other hand, is involved with the restoration and replanting of borders. The distaff side of the gardens has a charming Victorian walled garden and a vegetable and flower garden with a patchwork hedge and a rose walk. Plants propagated from seed brought back by Thomas Pakenham from a plant hunting expedition to the Yunan have been used to create a Tibetan and Chinese garden.

Best time of year to visit: May, June