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Mount Stewart House & Garden tel: 02842 788387 Area: Northern Ireland |
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| Visitor Information | www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mountstewart -- email: Helen.Harrison {at} nationaltrust.org.uk |
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Mount Stewart House & Garden |
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| Opening Days and Hours | ||||||
Lakeside gardens: all year; daily (except 25th/26 Dec); 10am - 6pm |
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| Parties
/ Coaches: Yes |
Groups
/ Coaches need Appointment: Yes |
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House
Open for Viewing: Yes |
National
Garden Scheme days: no |
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Best
Times of Year to Visit: May and June |
To
see: |
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| Admission Prices | ||||||
| Gift Aid Admission (Standard Admission prices in brackets): Adult £7 (£6.36), child £3.50 (£3.18), family £17.50 (£15.90) |
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| Onsite Facilities | ||||||
| Parking:
Yes Lavatories: Yes Disabled Access: Yes |
Shop:
Yes Plants for Sale: Yes Lunches: Yes |
Teas:
Yes Light Refreshment: Yes Picnics: Yes |
Dogs
Allowed: Yes On Lead only: Yes Special Events: Yes |
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| Other
Facilities: |
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| Garden Features | ||||||
| Neo-classical house and celebrated gardens; One of Northern Ireland's most popular National Trust properties; Celebrated landscaped park: European Garden of Inspiration 2003; Dramatic views across Strangford Lough from the Temple of the Winds; Former home to a fascinating array of political leaders and society figures; Huge George Stubbs painting voted one of Britain's 100 Greatest Works of Art; See the 22 chairs used at the landmark Congress of Vienna, called to redefine Europe's frontiers after the fall of Napoleon. Opening Weekend including Second Hand Book Fair 12 & 13 March Grand Garden and Craft Fair 21 and 22 May Vehicles of YesterYear - Father's Day 19 June European Heritage Open Day 10 September Food Glorious Food - 8 & 9 October Hallowe'en Enchanted Garden - 30 October |
English Heritage Garden Grade: | |||||
| National Collection: Phormium, Libertia, Dianella. | ||||||
| Description of Garden | Designer:
Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry |
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| It would be hard to overestimate the entrancing effect on the visitor of this wonderful garden. Lady Londonderry triumphantly succeeded in creating one of the great gardens of Europe, and one which no visitor to Ireland should miss. From the extravagantly planted Italian Garden near the house, where you may begin your tour, to the 15 acres of rhododendrons through which you return, you will find an almost unbelievable variety of plants, shrubs and trees sheltered to the south by woods and benefiting from the adjacent sea lough, nearness to the Irish Sea and the Gulf Stream. Lady Londonderry took advice from Sir John Ross of Rostrevor, Co. Down and from Sir Herbert Maxwell of Montreith, Scotland but she has imbued the place with her own idiosyncratic character and striking sense of humour, as illustrated by the figures on the Dodo Terrace in animal form some of which were politicians, members of her family, members of the armed forces and so on. Nearby is the Mairi Garden illustrating the nursery rhyme, "Mairi, Mairi, quite contrary" in cockle shells, silver bells (campanulas) and Pretty Maids (saxifrage) all in a row. But the garden is supreme in its variety, not only is there the grand sunken Italian parterre, but also a Spanish parterre beyond it, a tiled garden house, a further Sunken garden to the West of the house based on a design sent to her by Gertrude Jekyll, the famous garden of Irish symbolism and the wooded walks, lawns and the extraordinary burial ground with its white stag to bear you to heaven. In this garden you may feel that you are already there. |
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| History of Garden | ||||||
| The 3rd Marquess had dug out the lake in the 1840s and planted around it but Lady Londonderry began transforming this garden in the early 1920s from "the darkest, dampest, saddest place" she had ever stayed in to its present splendour. Amongst many other successes she planted the Jubilee Avenue (in reds, whites and blues) in 1936 to mark the Silver Jubilee of George V and Queen Mary. Lady Mairi Bury planted the Memorial Glade in 1959 after her mother's death. The garden is certainly one of the brightest jewels in the National Trust's crown. | ||||||
| Nearby Northern Ireland Hotels, Facilities & Amenities | ||||||
| Hotels
& Accommodation: The Strangford Arms |
Restaurants: The Bay Restaurant |
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| Inns & Pubs: Wildfowler, Grey Abbey |
Villages / Towns
/ Sightseeing: |
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  - Northern Ireland |
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*Information
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0277_MountStewart.jpg - Mount Stewart House & Garden (Northern Ireland)
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