Gardens, Gardens, Gardens!

The Bantry House

Flower of Garinish Island

Today was our first day of hardcore garden visiting... we went to 2! I know that doesn't sound intense but hey, its a full day of walking around and using all our sense and that's tiring! The first garden we went to was Garinish Island, a beautiful garden in the middle of Bantry Bay. It was a short boat ride from the main land over to the island, and once we arrived we were free to wonder about. The garden had various paths that wondered around and some that led to different themed areas. There was a walled garden, a Italian garden, there was an area that had an old stone fort you could go up in, and there was even a temple. There were also paths that wandered through areas called "the jungle" which were more dense and felt as though you were actually in a jungle. Other paths, some a little off the beaten path lead you right down to the water. But where ever you went in the garden you were surrounded by various trees and flowers. It was definitely a sensory overload as you could see the beautiful reds, oranges, purples, greens, and whites of the flowers and trees. And the smell of all the flowers and just the fresh air was amazing. Add to that the sound of the birds chirping overhead and the wind rustling the leaves and even the very comfortable temperatures we had today and you have a sensory overload, but in a good way!

The second place we visited was the Bantry House and gardens. The gardens were beautiful. In the back there was a huge set of stairs that started and a little water feature at the bottom and went up 100 steps and overlooked the house, gardens and the water- you could see for miles and miles. It was a magnificent view! The gardens in the front of the house were very nice too. They were much simpler and relatively flat in comparison to the back, I suspect this was mainly to preserve the view out onto the water from the house. The front did have a grass tennis court in which a few people (Jimmy, Sarah, Carrie, and Andy) played an game of invisible tennis, I believe the girls team won! After touring the gardens we got to tour around the inside of the house. I, along with a few others, found the house to be creepy and was just waiting for a ghost to pop out and start chasing us down the halls! Luckily, no such ghost appeared and we made it out just fine!

Once we finished at the Bantry House we made our way to Cork where we are staying for 2 nights. We all wandered about the city for a while before most of us began turning in, myself included. Tomorrow we are planning to check out the fresh market in the morning before heading out to visit Lakemount Garden!