Gardens of Ireland Tour

Our 9 Night Grandeur Gardens of Ireland tour takes you on a gentle journey through Ireland’s most internationally renowned gardens. Take time to “stop and smell the roses” and indulge your senses in rare and botanical treasures. Read through our sample detailed garden of Ireland itinerary below!

Self-drive Itinerary Available from $999.00 per person sharing includes 2 nights in Dublin, 1 night in Wexford, 2 Nights in Cork, 3 Nights in Kerry & last night in Clare; full Irish Breakfast daily; 10 Day Car Rental (Group Chauffeur Tour option also available - Contact us for details); Heritage Island Discount Booklet & All Taxes.

 DAY 1: Arrive in Dublin

Cead Mile Failte, Welcome to Ireland. This morning you will arrive into Dublin Airport where you will collect your Hertz rental car (for chauffeur tour option - will be met by your private driver/guide and escorted to your luxury touring motor vehicle). Your tour of the Emerald Isle will commence with an orientation tour of Dublin city before checking into the Royal Marine Hotel.

This afternoon you will travel to Ranelagh for a guided tour of Helen Dillons Garden.This is an urban garden, an oasis in the city, created over the last twenty five years, where a series of little gardens are arranged around a central lawn, each with a different theme.Controlled throughout by a strong sense of design and colour is a plant collection to rival that of a small botanic garden. Clematic and rare herbaceous plants a speciality. You will have a guided tour followed by tea/coffee and biscuits in the house along with a talk from Helen herself.

Overnight in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.

DAY 2: Full day tour of Dublin

Today you can enjoy a full day tour of Dublin City. On your city tour you will experience all the wonderful sights and landmarks of this ancient city. The tour includes some of Dublins most renowned sites, such as St Patricks Cathedral and the Book of Kells.

St Patricks Cathedral is the national cathedral of Ireland and it is also the largest cathedral in the country. Traditionally the place where the cathedral lies today was the place where St. Patrick baptized the pagans to Christianity in the 5th century and there has been a church there since. The cathedral was badly damaged during the Cromwellian invasion in Ireland and it was eventually completely re-furbished by the Guinness family in the 19th century. Jonathan Swift, author of Gullivers’ Travellers was dean of the cathedral for 32 years and his remains are buried within the cathedral.

Trinity College is a residential college in the heart of the city. Here you will visit the Colonnades, which houses the colleges greatest treasures, of which the most famous is the Book Of Kells.The book is a magnificently illustrated, in Celtic design, version of the Gospels designed by unknown hands in the monastery of Kells in Meath about 800. It was presented to Trinity College in the mid-17th Century in order to save it from Cromwells army.

In the afternoon you will have a guided tour of the National Botanic Gardens. These colourful gardens cover a total area of 19.5 hectares, part of which is the natural flood plain of the river Tolka. The gardens contain a large plant collection which includes approximately 20,000 species and cultivars. There are four ranges of glasshouses including the recently restored Curvilinear Range. Notable features include herbaceous displays, rose garden, rockery, vegetable garden, arboretum, extensive shrub borders and wall plants. Gardens are accessible for people with disabilities but there are some steep gradients.

Overnight again in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.

DAY 3: Mount Usher Gardens and Powerscourt Gardens 

Today you will travel to county Wicklow and your first visit of the day will be to Mount Usher Gardens where you will have a guided tour. These lovely gardens stand in 8 ha of well watered land on the banks of the River Vartry. Water forms an essential part of the scenery, with cascades and bridges visible in just about every section. The gardens were laid out by Edward Walpole, a Dublin businessman and his sons, from 1886 onwards, as a wild garden and contain about 5,000 species including many rhododendron and eucryphia.

In the afternoon you will visit Powerscourt House and Gardens. The Powerscourt Estate, originally granted to Sir Richard Wingfield, Viscount Powerscourt, by James I in 1690, provides a breath crown in which to set the jewel of Richard Castle’s Palladian mansion.

The glorious formal gardens at Powerscourt owe their completion to sibling rivalry. The bones of a baroque garden with steep terraces overlooking a dramatic view of the Sugar Loaf Mountain. In the mid 19th century, the 7th Viscount Powerscourt with no heirs and an intense dislike of his brother who stood to inherit, decided to expend the family fortunes on the creation of an elaborate garden. Its most striking features are the circular pond and fountain flanked by winged Pegasi, elaborate ironwork, Italian statuary and the double staircase with the Aeolus fountain and Italianate patterned ramps. Sadly, the centre block of the house was gutted by a disastrous fire in 1974 but in 1996 a process of regeneration began with the re-roofing of the house and the restoration of the windows. The entrance hall now features an exhibition describing the fascinating history of Powerscourt.

Continue to Irelands sunny south east where you will overnight in Wexford.

DAY 4: Wexford - Cork

Departing Wexford you will travel to nearby Waterford. No visit to Waterford would be complete without a visit to the Waterford Crystal factory - this world-renowned crystal is made here in the city by a skilled team of workers. Visitors are guided through the production area, where they can see the birth of crystal from a white-hot furnace, and then witness its transformation by dedicated blowers, cutters and engravers into beautiful sparkling crystal.On your return from the tour, visitors are shown around the Crystal Gallery, which houses one of the worlds finest displays of crystal.

In the afternoon you will travel to Cork stopping off at Mount Congreve Gardens.

The Mount Congreve Gardens created by Ambrose Congreve over the past eighty two of his ninety three years, are vast and spectacular, where twenty five gardeners are employed. Four acres of walled garden have been arranged into May, June, July and August borders, each filled with usual and unusual herbaceous plants including special iris beds and great hydrangea in north facing beds. Fruit trees fill the middle beds as well as the biggest Clematis Armandii in these islands. The main body of the garden is woodland, with runs of incredible magnolia, camellia, rhododendrons and azaleas, cherry, acer, azara, eucryphia, michelia, pittsoporum and prunus. At the height of late spring the perfume is overpowering. All these flowering shrubs are overlooked by 18th & 19th century plantations of Oak and Beech. There are over 16 miles of path winding in and around the plants, so it is possible to loose ones way.

Overnight in Cork City.

DAY 5: Ballymaloe Gardens and Cobh

This morning you will have a guided tour of Ballymaloe Gardens. These beautiful formal gardens, managed by the Allen family who also manage the famous Ballymaloe Cookery School, are well worth a visit. Features include a herb garden set among beech hedges, with a large variety of herbs laid out in a formal parterre edged with box hedging. There is also a formal fruit garden with a wide selection of fruit trees and soft fruit. The vegetable garden is beautifully laid out in diamonds and squares with herringbone paths of old brick. The gardens also have a pretty water feature and a recently planted Celtic maze.

In the afternoon you will head to Cobh for a visit to the Cobh Heritage Centre. Cobh Heritage Centre commemorates the days when Cobh (then known as Queenstown) was a vital link in transatlantic liner traffic, particularly in the years of high emigration. Because more than 2½ million people form all over Ireland departed from Cobh for lives in the US, Canada and Australia, Cobh became synonymous with emigration.The center also offers exhibits that re-create the age of luxury-liner travel and events such as the sinking of the Titanic and Lusitania.

Overnight in Cork City.

DAY 6: Cork - Kenmare 

Before departing county Cork you will visit Blarney Castle. What remains of this impressive castle today is a massive square tower, with a parapet rising 83 feet. The infamous Blarney Stone is wedged far enough underneath the battlements to make it uncomfortable to reach, but not far enough that countless people dont, for reasons inexplicable, abandon all concern for health to kiss it!

Travelling westwards, you will stop enroute for a guided tour of Bantry House and Gardens. In 1796 a French invasion fleet sailed into Bantry Bay to join forces with Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen. But a storm changed the course of history, forcing the French to turn back to Brest. Richard White must have blessed that so-called Protestant Wind as he watched their retreat from Bantry House. White bought the property in 1765, which was enlarged by his son Richard, the 2nd Earl of Bantry. The house is filled with a unique collection of tapestries, furniture, carpets and art treasures, collected by the 2nd Earl from all over Europe in the 19th Century.

The magnificent gardens and grounds (under restoration) are home to many sub-tropical plants and shrubs reflecting the best in European design and style. Other features within the 45 acre grounds include the renowned 100-stepped stairway to the sky, the Italian Garden and the largest wisteria circle in the country.

Overnight in Kenmare, Co. Kerry.

DAY 7: Kenmare - Glengarriff

Today explore Garnish Island by boat. Also known as Ilnacullin, or the Island of Holly, Garnish Island is perhaps the most magical setting a garden could have. Known to horticulturalists the world over as an oasis of rare beauty, this 15 hectares of garden boasts a rich variety of plant life. Be on the lookout for the seal colonies that call the surrounding waters home.

After lunch visit Glengarriff Bamboo Park. This unique, exotic garden is home to over 30 species of Bamboo, 12 different species of palm tree, huge tree ferns, eucalyptus, and other plants that thrive in our mild climate. You will surely want to linger on the superb coastal walks.

Return to Kenmare for overnight.

 DAY 8: Ring of Kerry

Today after a leisurely start, you will have a tour of the Ring of Kerry, which takes you through spectacular coastal and mountainous scenery along the base of the highest mountain range in Ireland, the MacGillycuddy Reeks. The journey takes you through villages and towns depicting typical rural life in Ireland. It is really hard to explain the true beauty of the Ring of Kerry, except to say that it should not be missed.

You will have a guided tour of the Gardens at Muckross House.The Gardens at Muckross House are renowned world-wide for their beauty. In particular they are noted for their fine collections of azaleas and rhododendrons, an extensive water garden, and an outstanding rock garden hewn out of natural limestone. Muckross House is also home to a number of skilled craft workers who can be viewed using traditional skills in the crafts of weaving, bookbinding and pottery.

Return to Kenmare for overnight.

DAY 9: Kerry - Clare 

Before departing Co. Kerry you will visit Dunloe Castle Gardens. You can walk around the world in an hour in the Castle Gardens. The voyage starts with Chilean fir trees and leads on to Australian gums, South African lilies, New Zealand cabbage trees, New Zealand cherries, Japanese maples, North American dogwoods, South American fuchsias and back to a Killarney strawberry tree.
The gardens surrounding the shell of MacThomas’ medieval keep have a dramatic setting looking towards the mountains girdled by the Ring of Kerry. Camellias, magnolias, roses and rhododendrons flourish in the sheltered grounds together with rare specimens like the aromatic-leaved ‘Headache’ tree and the Chinese swamp cypress. These are catalogued in a booklet by plantsman and broadcaster Roy Lancaster, who supervises new planting.

In the early afternoon travel via the Shannon Estuary to County Clare where you will visit the world renowned Cliffs of Moher.

Your final night will be spent in Ennistymon, Co. Clare.

DAY 10: Depart

This morning return your rental car to Shannon Airport (for group chauffeur tour option - your driver will bring you to Shannon Airport) where you will take your transatlantic flight back to the US.

Slan Abhaile - Safe Home!