Up and away in beautiful Ballon at Altamont Gardens

Peter Dowdall visits the spectacular Altamont Gardens.

Sat, 24 Mar, 2018 - 00:00

Peter Dowdall visits the spectacular Altamont Gardens.

It takes a lot of people a long time to work it out doesn’t it? With many, it can take til late middle age or even retirement — and in some cases others may never get there. I’m referring to that most important pursuit of all, finding your niche, finding happiness and what makes you tick.

We gardeners are a step ahead of the posse in that regard. I know that’s a very arrogant statement but it’s true, people who work in, and enjoy the garden, tend to be calmer and happier.

When you are that close to nature and the great outdoors you tend to be a bit more grounded, more content because, after all its what happens in the universe outside that’s important, not the pursuit of other distractions. So, it’s important to have a relationship with the outside word and to understand how it all works in order to figure out how we all work.

In terms of career choice, it can take a huge amount of courage to decide to try and carve your way in life through gardening when it might be much more sensible to go the route of the more defined 9-5 jobs, but courageous decisions bring their own degree of satisfaction.

If any proof of that were needed then my recent trip to Altamont Gardens in Ballon, Co Carlow confirmed the hypothesis. The place and the people here just ooze calmness and hospitality. There is an air of welcome and happiness about the gardens and the gardeners.

As I have said many times in the past, a garden is about so much more than the plants contained therein. It’s about the soul, the spirit of the place and this comes from the generations that have created and continue to maintain it well.

This is a garden of generations, the last private owner, Corona North, grew up in the house and after the death of her father she returned after the Second World War, planted many of the specimen trees which are the statement pieces of Altamont now, such as the Davidia involucrata (handkerchief tree), Acer griseum (paperbark maple), Cornus kousa chinensis (Chinese dogwood) and Taxodiums (swamp cypress). Paul Cutler worked with Corona for several years before her death in 1999, and now that the gardens are under the umbrella of the OPW, Paul is the head gardener at Altamont. This continuity is something invaluable and intangible.

Paul has a deep knowledge of plants and and an understanding of this garden that can only come from living it, from being part of it. Altamont is one of the gardens that illustrates why publicly-owned property can be every bit as well-cared-for and loved as those owned privately.

Paul works with a team of three other full-time gardeners in the main gardens here. Robert Millar tends the Walled Garden, nestled alongside the plant nursery, which when I visited was a pure treasure trove of rarer and more unusual specimens.

The journey into the gardens at Altamont starts off with a wander down Nuns’ Walk, so named because it’s believed the site was home to a convent in the early 16th century.

A line of mature beech trees flanks one side of this walkway and on the other side are laurel rows, which Corona allowed to grow up and create an arch over the path creating a dappled green tunnel during the summer months.

The laurel is now more managed and as a result more sunlight gets into the area. Several of the beech were diseased, however, and have been felled due to safety concerns and none of the remaining trees show any signs of ill health, thankfully.

A trip down Nuns’ Walk during the early months of the year lets you know immediately that this is one of those rare gardens in Ireland — a garden that gives as good in January and February as it does during high summer.

Underneath the beech you will see snowdrops and hellebores planted on such a scale that they are now setting seed and naturalising freely.

The Annual Snowdrop Gala is held here each February and there are over 200 varieties of this white wonder planted here.

I asked Paul if he considers himself a galantophile (a snowdrop addict) and he answered me in a most common sense manner.

“I have huge interest in maintaining any collection of plants, but I don’t get silly about them.”

I say that’s a common sense, because that’s my take on it too, but I know there are many that do get carried away with this genus — some of the rarer specimens change hands for huge money, in horticultural terms.

One variety which did tickle my fancy no end, and still in full flower and looking resplendent during my visit, was Galanthus ‘Cool Ballintaggart’. This was growing beneath Rododendron praecox and both were in flower at the same time, creating a wonderful combination.

On then to the Broad Walk which leads down to the lake, and both features were constructed when Altamont was owned by Dawson Borror, (the son of a landscape architect), in the 1850s to give local employment after the Famine.

On either side of this walk, which has narrowed over the years, are mature buxus hedges punctuated by magnificent yew arches which frame the view of the lake beyond.

Behind the box are rose beds and again the winter garden theme continues here with snowdrops and snowflake, with the variety Leucojumvernum var carpaticum, the more unusual yellow tinged form, planted beneath the roses.

As these go over, the daffodils appear and then the roses, so continuity of colour in these beds is assured for at least nine months of the year.

Winter and early spring interest is added to, in Altamont, with early flowering viburnums, daphnes, hamamelis, pieris, camellias and azaleas.

On the lawn terraces on either side of the Broad Walk are found some of the finest specimens, including one chamaecyparis (false cypress), named the Twelve Apostles because it has 12 stems from ground level reaching up to over 20 metres in height.

I didn’t count them as there may be more at this stage, but why let the facts get in the way of a nice story?

A garden like this is constantly throwing up questions, revealing information and half answering those questions, particularly on the Bund Walk where you will notice a ditch with running water which predates the lawns and Broad Walk area, as is evidenced from the planting of mature lime trees alongside, so what way was the garden designed and laid out then?

There is so much more garden here to talk about — such as the Robinsonian influenced walkways through the ancient Oak Woods, and the hundred granite steps which lead down to the walk along the River Slaney; the Temple of the Four Winds erected by Corona North; the new stone bridge which leads to the creation of the Wisteria Walkway and of course, the Walled Garden, which will come into its own once more over the next few months.

However, any account of this garden would be incomplete if I didn’t refer to the wildlife within. Paul, who brought me around, is as passionate about the fauna that call Altamont home, as he is about the flora. A member of Birdwatch Ireland, he had recently noticed some redwings, fieldfares and lapwings in the grounds, birds who probalby ended up in county Carlowbecause of the recent strong winds which came with Storm Emma.

They were mingling away fine with over thirty other species of birds who live at Altamont, including a pair of grebes who make their floating nest on the leaves of the lilies in the lake.

The animals, too, have cottoned on to the atmosphere here and the safe refuge that the gardens provide. Hares abound — and I enjoyed seeing a young leveret playing in the Walled Garden while I was there.

Pine martens live here too, along with minks. There were red squirrels up to about 15 years ago and now the greys, who were becoming a problem, have also died out, probably due to the pine martens who are a natural predator, and have no natural predators themselves.

- Details: Altamont Gardens, Bunclody Rd, Altamont, Ballon, Co Carlow R93 N882

- altamontgardens@opw.ie

Opening Hours 2018

- Gardens close in severe weather events.

- Please telephone in advance of visit.

- Opening Times: Seven days including bank holidays.

- January: 9am - 4pm

- February: 9am - 4.30pm

- March: 9am - 5pm

- April - September: 9am - 6.30pm

- October: 9am - 5pm

- November: 9am - 4.30pm