Altamont House is a historic building best known for its ornamental gardens in

County Carlow County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow Cou ...

. The Robinsonian-style gardens are often referred to as "the jewel in Ireland's gardening crown".

History

The early origins of the house are unclear, with some claiming that the building was first built as a convent, perhaps dating as far back as the 16th century. The central section of the house dates from the 18th century and the sections that face the east remain unchanged, were built by the St George family. Most of these changes to the house were to reverse it to face a newly built road. During the 1780s, Benjamin Burton Doyle the

High Sheriff of Carlow The High Sheriff of Carlow was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Carlow, Ireland from the 14th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Carlow County Sheriff. The she ...

lived at the house. In the 1840s the Dawson Borrer family refurbished and altered the house and gardens, adding the lake that was dug as relief work for the local population during the

Irish famine The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a h ...

. Feilding Lecky Watson bought Altamont in 1923, and proceeded to extend and expand the gardens. Watson's interest was primarily in

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

s, planting seedlings from around the world and exchanging specimens with Sir Frederick Moore of the National Botanic Gardens. Following Watson's death in 1943, his daughter, Corona North continued her father's horticultural work.

Gardens

The garden sits on the banks of

River Slaney The River Slaney () is a large river in the southeast of Ireland. It rises on Lugnaquilla Mountain in the western Wicklow Mountains and flows west and then south through counties Wicklow, Carlow and Wexford for 117.5 km (73 mi), bef ...

which includes an ice age glen,

bog garden A bog garden is a type of garden that employs permanently moist (but not waterlogged) soil to create a habitat for plants and creatures which thrive in such conditions. It may exploit existing poor drainage in the garden, or it may be artificiall ...

and

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

, with view of the

Blackstairs Mountains The Blackstairs Mountains ( ga, Na Staighrí Dubha) run roughly north/south along the border between County Carlow and County Wexford in Ireland. The highest peak is Mount Leinster with a total height of 2612 ft/ 796 metres. See also *List o ...

Wicklow Mountains The Wicklow Mountains (, archaic: ''Cualu'') form the largest continuous upland area in the Republic of Ireland. They occupy the whole centre of County Wicklow and stretch outside its borders into the counties of Dublin, Wexford and Carlow. Wh ...

and

Mount Leinster Mount Leinster ( ga, Stua Laighean) is a mountain in the Republic of Ireland. It straddles the border between Counties Carlow and Wexford, in the province of Leinster. It is the fifth-highest mountain in Leinster after Lugnaquilla , Mullaghclee ...

. Some of the

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

s are believed to be over 500 years old, and the varying environments provide habitats for diverse set of wildlife. The garden is home to a variety of rare

azalea Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the genus ''Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections ''Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and '' Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, and Octob ...

s, rhododendrons,

magnolia ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...

s, as well as wild bluebells and

snowdrops ''Galanthus'' (from Ancient Greek , (, "milk") + (, "flower")), or snowdrop, is a small genus of approximately 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leaves and a single ...

. The gardens also feature a Wellingtonia, the ''

Sequoiadendron giganteum ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (giant sequoia; also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, California big tree, Wellingtonia or simply big treea nickname also used by John Muir) is the sole living species in the genus ''Sequoiade ...

'' or Giant Redwood, which was planted to commemorate the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

. A trust was set up in the early 1990s to preserve the estate of 100 acres. Following the death of Corona North, ownership of the house and gardens was transferred to the Irish State, and is operated by the

Office of Public Works The Office of Public Works (OPW) ( ga, Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí) (legally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland) is a major Irish Government agency, which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including hundreds of ow ...

Gallery

File:Altamont House September 2019 01.jpg, The front of the house File:Altamont House September 2019 02.jpg, The Broadwalk File:Altamont House September 2019 05.jpg, The lake

References

External links

Entry in the Inventory of Architectural Heritage
{{Historic Irish houses, state=collapsed Buildings and structures in County Carlow Gardens in County Carlow