Walk of the Week: Doneraile Park opens up wonderful vista

DONERAILE PARK WALK

Doneraile Park, created by the St Leger family, colonists who gained vast tracts of land after the failure of the Desmond Rebellion, is one of the glories of County Cork. Only an immensely rich family could afford to set aside 400 acres of prime land for a park and spend a fortune fashioning it in the style of the English landscape architect, Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-1783). A major celebrity at the time, Brown’s ‘new’ vision of landscaping as an art of illusion was widely adopted by English landowners. The park was sold by Lady Doneraile to the Land Commission 1969, the house, Doneraile Court, saved by The Irish Georgian Society and put into OPW care. The Forestry Commission opened the Park in 1984.

The art of a Capability Brown landscape is the impression that nature created it. Human husbandry is successfully concealed. Large tracts of grassland are created and set with elegant, individual trees or clusters of beeches, oaks, chestnuts and limes. These meadows are fringed with broadleaved borders, creating the illusion that they are clearings in the natural woodland. Ha-ha fences are sunk into the ground to avoid obstruction of the view.