Waterford's Mount Congreve gardens re-open after €7m rejuvenation project
The first visitors to the newly re-opened Mount Congreve Gardens in Co Waterford on Wednesday were twin sisters Sophie and Chloe Drea, age 7. Picture: Patrick Browne
The 70-acre gardens at Mount Congreve in Kilmeaden, Co Waterford, have re-opened following a restoration project that will allow visitors to see inside parts of the 18th-century Mount Congreve House for the first time.
Following the €7m first phase of an ambitious restoration project, parts of the ground floor of the house, constructed in the 1760s, are now open to visitors as part of what is hoped will become a “world-class visitor experience” for the South East.
The estate was closed for a year from October 2020 to facilitate works, which include a new visitor centre and cafe in the courtyard, an eco-playground, a gift shop and the restoration of the ground floor of the house.
The gardens contain one of the largest collections of plants in Ireland and are particularly renowned for their rhododendron collection, one of the largest in the world.
The estate was home to six generations of the Congreve family and was passed to the Irish State following the death of the last owner, Ambrose Congreve, at 104, in 2011.
Mount Congreve is now maintained and managed by Waterford City and County Council and Mount Congreve Trust, in agreement with the OPW.
Mr Congreve was a passionate devotee of gardening who won 13 gold medals at Chelsea Flower Show, with plants for his award-winning displays grown in nurseries at Mount Congreve, which he first began developing as a garden in the 1950s.
It is a world-class destination for fans of gardens and stately homes that has sometimes been overlooked compared to other Irish historic gardens, estate manager Ray Sinnott told the .
“We could be Waterford’s version of Muckross House, Powerscourt Gardens, Blarney Castle or Fota House,” Mr Sinnott said.
“It’s been a big challenge and a very long process to get principal partners on board, but it’s very exciting to be where we are now, re-opening to the public. It’s great to have the house in use again too.”
Funding for the renovations came from a national Rural Regeneration Development Fund, Fáilte Ireland, Mount Congreve Trust and Waterford City and County Council.
The extended facilities have meant a “huge increase” in employment at the attraction, Mr Sinnott said, with 27 staff now directly employed in the house and gardens, up from 14 prior to renovations, and additional staff employed in the café.
The gardens have 16km of walkways including a Woodland Walk, a Fragrant Walk Trail, a Walled Garden Walk and a 2km dog-friendly Wetland Walk.
They also feature a four-acre walled garden, a kitchen garden which grows produce for the visitor café, and 3,000 different trees and shrubs, more than 2,000 rhododendrons and 1,500 herbaceous plants.
There is an entry fee for the attraction and a variety of guided tours will be available for public booking.
The opening coincides with one of the annual spectacles of the garden, Mr Sinnott said: “At the moment, the magnolias in flower have to be seen to be believed. There’s nowhere like it in Ireland.
“It’s about half a kilometre of mature, 50-foot-tall magnolia trees covered in pink flowers. It’s incredible. But then the camelias will be out, and then the azaleas. There’s something different to see in each season.
“My own favourite time is autumn because of the number of Japanese maples we have: the colours, all the oranges and vivid bronzes, are just amazing.”
Mr Sinnott has worked at Mount Congreve since 2006 and worked with the garden’s founder, who he described as “an incredibly interesting man,” prior to his death.
The newly restored estate would meet with Ambrose Congreve’s approval, he said. “He would be thrilled with it — he would be in his element because he was always working on new plans for different parts of the grounds. So he would have loved it.”
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