Powerscourt and Killruddery

Here we are on Tuesday and County Wicklow. Wicklow is called "The Gardens of Ireland" because of all the beautiful gardens located here; and we will visit a few of them. This county also has some very rugged mountains where the survivors and escapees of several of the risings hid out for years after; the government finally built a military road into the area but that didn't deter the people hiding out.

After breakfast, we had a sunny day and we drove north to Powerscourt. This is an 18th century house and gardens. The gardens are formal and have served as an elegant backdrop in a number of period movies like "Barry Lyndon" and "The Count of Monte Cristo." In addition to the elaborate formal gardens, there is an extensive Japanese garden built over a former bog, and a pet cemetery which is the final resting place of the family's various dogs, ponies and even a cow or two. This place is very commercialized with an extensive array of shops; it's a stop on almost every tour bus route.

















After lunch we went to Killruddery, which is another house and garden complex but smaller and less formal than Powerscourt. The building family came to England with William the Conqueror and the land was given to the family by Elizabeth I. The house has been a work in progress ever since and the gardens were first built in the 17th century. There are gardens both formal and wooded; and some are simply a network of high hedges. You can just envision young ladies strolling among the hedges with their parasols while the young men try to steal kisses. In fact, the grounds have been used in the movies "Far and Away," " My Left Foot," and one about the life of Jane Austin.




We ended the day with dinner at our hotel. We met a very nice German mother and adult son who travel together a lot; in fact they've lived in and traveled to an amazing number of places. Our conversations with them at this dinner and subsequent breakfasts were very interesting and enlightening.