Northern delights
The gardens at Hillsborough Castle in Co Down re-open to the public from next month. We preview a space that anyone of a horticultural bent, will find fascinating
Game of Thrones and more recently, Derry Girls, may be putting Northern Ireland on the tourist map, but there are other pearls in the province, not least Hillsborough Castle and its magnificent gardens which reopen after their winter break on April 18. One of the grandest houses in County Down, the former home of a marquess is the official home of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland as well as a royal residence for the British Royal family when they visit NI. Since the 1980s, the house has played an important role in facilitating the Northern Ireland Peace Process (the Good Friday Agreement was signed here in 1998) and in 2014, Historic Royal Palaces took over running the castle and gardens, initiating an ambitious project to restore them to their former glory.
The walled garden at Hillsborough dates back to the 18th Century and is a large, four-acre site historically used to produce fruit, vegetables and flowers for the castle. This horticultural space has been restored to create a working garden, complete with dipping pond, crop rotations, seasonal produce, herbaceous borders and an orchard. Of particular interest to gardeners will be the espalier fruit trees growing on the garden walls, which were planted 50 years ago and now produce masses of apples and pears. Visitors of all ages can now learn how crops are grown on a historic site, and get inspiration for their own gardening projects.
Wills Hill, the Earl of Hillsborough and later Marquess of Downshire, set out the Small Park at the same time the house was built in the mid-1700s. The fashion at that time was for a park landscape that looked natural, with carriage rides and clumps of trees breaking to reveal interesting views. This style was championed by the famous English landscape designer Capability Brown, who, although he never came to Ireland, worked for Wills Hill on the landscaping of his house in England.
The garden to the north of the main house is one such contrived, ‘natural’ landscape. Some of the carriage rides and paths survive, encircling the lake that was created by damming a stream. As time passed, garden fashion changed, and the family chose to extend the gardens to the south. This meant relocating the old Moira Road further south and moving the village shops and houses further away. The extended garden, with waterfalls, pools, rocky outcrops and glens, followed the early 19th-Century concept of the ‘Picturesque’; gardens were planned to look like Italian Renaissance landscapes paintings.
Within a few decades, fashions changed again and terraces overlooking water features within the existing ‘Picturesque’ landscapes became all the rage. At Hillsborough, the South Terrace was created and architect James Sands added a grand portico at the centre of the south façade.
If you want to delve deeper into the Castle’s legacy, the new Clore Learning Centre is a creative and educational space where the fascinating history of the Castle and gardens can be explored through hands-on activities, workshops and talks. And if you’re feeling peckish after all this exploring, you can take a break at the café, where produce from the garden is used in the dishes.