Gardens and Demesnes

A brief historical introduction

Most of Ulster’s historic gardens and designed landscapes form part of ‘demesnes’ - a term which in Ireland refers to those portions of the manor estates not leased out to tenants, but retained by the lords for their own use and occupation (see Reeves-Smyth 1997 for definition). Demesnes have been a dominant feature of the Irish landscape since medieval times and once occupied over five per cent of the country. Although dependent upon their surrounding tenanted estates, these demesnes evolved as separate social and economic areas with distinctive planned and managed layouts incorporating woodland, farmland, gardens and ornamental grounds as well as a range of building types.

Geometric Gardens and Landscapes 1660-1740:

By the early 17th century, gardens were developing beside manors, many of which were defended with walls or fences.These had formal layouts, sometimes terraced, and invariably were arranged symmetrically below the house windows. After the Restoration there was an increased desire to provide even more impressive settings for the great mansions then being built in Ulster. Formal features arranged axially upon the house on broad controlled vistas began to effect large parts of the demesne area. Tree lined avenues, which sometimes marched out from the house for great distances, were a dominant feature of these layouts. Other standard features included circular pools and canals, terraces, parterres, bowling greens and bosquets (ornamental groves). The demesne fields around the house were also invariably laid out in a regular gird like manner together with blocks of plantations. Examples: Antrim/Old Castle Ward

Landscape Parks 1740-1845:

By the mid 18th century the old formal layouts, which sought to prove that man could subdue nature, now made way for ‘naturalised’ parkland - the planting and layout of which reflected a new appreciation that ‘natural’ features, such as woods, streams and hills were beautiful in themselves. The idea was now to create Arcadian parkscapes of ‘untouched’ nature, secluded from the world by encircling walls and belts of trees with smooth open meadows dotted with clumps of trees, a lake and romantic ruins, temples and pavilions. The ‘naturalistic’ style evolved through a series of revolutions in taste.

The main ones were:

1. The Rococo period. Early naturalistic layouts, mostly quite small, intimate and essentially ephemeral. The bone house at Caledon belonged to such a layout.
2. The Brownian (1760s to 1790s) Characterised by large open layouts which swept up to the windows of the house. All forms of gardening banished to the walled garden. Examples: Florence Court/ Castle Coole/Seaforde/Castle Ward.
3. The Picturesque (1790-1840s). In the Regency and Early Victorian era, landscapers strove to make their parks even more ‘natural’ in appearance. They incorporated underplanting to trees, rough ground and disliked contrivances such as the ha-ha, preferring fences. Isolated trees as well as clumps are planted in the open meadows and greater attention now given to providing a greater number of ‘picture’ views and vistas. Rather than separating houses from their parks with sweeping lawns, flower gardens were now often designed beneath the windows, often in terraces. Examples: Crom/Narrow Water Castle.

Mid and Late Victorian 1840-1880:

In the years following the Great Famine (1845-9) when money and labour were no longer so abundant, there was a sharp decline in the number of parklands being created in Ireland. Indeed after 1849 hundreds of demesnes changed hands in the Encumbered Estates Courts and many were subsequently reduced in size or disappeared. The eclipse of the landscape park was accompanied by a popular enthusiasm for plant collecting, sustained by a great influx of seeds, cuttings, and potted plants from abroad and by the improved design and construction of glasshouses. Rare tree specimens were now increasingly cultivated for their own sake rather than as part of the overall parkland scheme. Tree collections, Arboreta or Pineta, became standard features of demesnes - usually informal areas, ranged botanically or at random, traversed by paths, rides and vistas. New trees and shrubs were also accommodated in American Gardens or other specially created pleasure grounds. Rose gardens and rock gardens were developed together with areas devoted to particular plant themes, such as evergreen or aquatic plants. Formal parterres became very popular, sometimes with balustraded terracing, and these were filled with vast numbers of new annuals and tender plants that were now raised in the heated glasshouses of the walled gardens. Examples: Castlewellan/Ballywalter Park/Baronscourt.

Late Victorian and Edwardian 1880-1914:

Demesne staff were everywhere curtailed in the 1880s as a result of the agricultural depression and agrarian troubles. As demesne gardens became less intensive, so the concept of the naturalised ‘wild’ garden took hold, advocated by the Irish horticulturist William Robinson. His philosophy of planting ‘perfectly hardy exotics under conditions where they will grow without further care’ was well received in Ireland, leading to the creation of bog gardens, rhododendron and other woodland gardens, mixed borders, grass paths and the massing of bulbs. This legacy remains a dominant theme of private Irish gardens to this day. However, the early and mid-Victorian love of formal parterres and massed bedding continued to flourish in the public parks and gardens, whose number continued to increase during this period.

Gardens and Parks after the Great war (1914-18):

The late Victorian and Edwardian Land Acts, notably the Wyndam Act of 1903, resulted in the sale of most estate land to the tenants. Country houses and their demesnes were consequently left without their traditional income with predictably detrimental consequences for their associated gardens. A number of country houses were sold and subsequently demolished; others passed into the hands of religious orders or institutions, but in most cases, the house, parkland and walled garden survived in their original family ownership. Many parklands were however neglected, and some of their carefully positioned isolated trees, clumps, belts and screens often had to make way for the needs of commercial agriculture. Notwithstanding these various difficulties, most of the province’s important designed landscapes have survived, some in remarkably fine condition, and these constitute an enormously important surviving part of our rural heritage.

Some Further Reading

Dean, J. 1994. The Gate Lodges of Ulster. UAHS.

Howley, J. 1993. The Follies and Garden Buildings of Ireland. Yale. Second edition 2004.

Lamb K and Bowe P. 1995. A History of Gardening in Ireland. Glasnevin Botanic Gardens.

Malins, E and Glin, The Knight of. 1976. Lost Demesnes: Irish Landscape Gardening 1660 - 1845. Barrie and Jenkins.

Malins, E and Bowe, P. 1980. Irish Gardens and Demesnes from 1830. Barrie and Jenkins.

O’Kane, F. 2004. Landscape Design in Eighteenth Century Ireland. Cork University Press.

Reeves-Smyth, T.J. 1997a. ‘The natural history of demesnes’, in J.W. Foster and H. C.G. Chesney (eds.) Nature in Ireland. A Scientific and Cultural History. The Lilliput Press, pp549-572.

Reeves-Smyth, T.J. 1997b. ‘Demesnes’, in F.Aalen, K.Whelan and M. Stout (eds.) The Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape. Cork University Press, pp197-205.

Reeves-Smyth, T.J. 1999. Irish Gardens and Gardening Before Cromwell. Barryscourt Lecture Series. Gandon Editions.