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www. architect.crimmins.ie Conservation Appraisal of Walled Garden and Historic landscape of Kylemore Abbey 3 CA THAL CRIMMINS AR CHITECT

Introduction immense area, indeed, and affording room for mighty improvements. Between the
money laid out upon the grounds and gardens, and in the building of the mansion
there cannot be less at present expended than a few hundred thousand pounds.
The Significance of Kylemore’s Nineteenth-Century

Landscape and Walled Gardens Arising from this focus on improvement the three disciplines of farming, gardening and
architecture were considered equal and indivisible. All three were equally significant in
creating a model Irish estate:
Kylemore is one of the most significant nineteenth-century designed landscapes in Henceforth gardening and architecture must be allied and work in unison for the
Ireland. It stands as a pre-eminent instance of nineteenth-century landed estate benefit of the human race. The architect will need to have knowledge of gardening
design of the period 1865-1920. The architectural elements of the Gothic revival castle,
the Gothic memorial church, the stables, walled gardens, mausoleum and many other wants, and the gardener cannot do without the services of the architect. As time moves
on they will be found to be indispensible to each other, unless, indeed, architecture and
buildings were combined with such landscape features as the pleasure grounds, the building sinks back into excavation, and gardening once more merges into the fields
designed approach routes, walks, bridges, an Italian garden and a pinetum to create an
impressive domestic environment constructed at a very large scale in a most and valleys.
unexpected location- Conemara-one of poorest regions in nineteenth-century Europe
in the aftermath of Ireland’s Great Famine of 1845-9. Mitchell Henry’s project was not
only to build himself a country estate- it was also to change the form, management The landscape was improved by Henry’s novel experiments in drainage, fertilisation,
land tenure and all manner of improvements. The estate’s design incorporated areas
and landscape of a very deprived environment.
where these technological experiments and advances would be demonstrated and
showcased. Chief among these were Addergoole Farm and the walled gardens:
The significance of Kylemore Abbey is perhaps most clearly appreciated by reference to Five years ago there was nothing to be seen but a wild waste of furze and heath;
a long essay published in four parts by the anonymous ‘Dubliensis’ in The Irish Builder and there were physical difficulties to be overcome, for the Pass of Kylemore is swept
in 1872.This essay deliberately repeated the landscape architect James Fraser’s 1826-7 by the wild breezes of the Atlantic, which is nowise a favourable acquisition to floral
1
analysis On the Present State of Gardening in Ireland, with Hints for its Further culture. To construct this garden in the West a bog had to be conquered and
Improvement that was published in volumes 1 & 2 of the leading theorist and author thoroughly drained, and three miles of hot-water pipes laid down. Mr. Garnier, as head
John Claudius Loudon’s The Gardeners’ Magazine. Fraser in turn was repeating Joseph of staff, laid out the garden, and twenty-one houses were erected from designs by him,
2
Cooper Walker’s 1790 Essay on the Rise and Progress of Gardening in Ireland. 3 and roofed by Cranston of Birmingham. The garden comprises six acres of ground,
encompassed by what is termed a ‘stepped’ wall, in consequence of the undulating
character of the ground.
5
It is significant that, of all Irish nineteenth-century gardens, ‘Dubliensis’ considered
only Kylemore worthy of detailed description and consideration (The Casino in Marino
representied the achievements of the eighteenth century). This made Kylemore the The 2000 Kylemore gardens project aimed to ‘restore the greater part of the garden to
pre-eminent model for Irish gardening of the 1870s: its appearance c.1870-1890 when it was fully established and in its hey-day, as a The Significance of Kylemore’s Glasshouse Design
splendid example of a Victorian walled garden.’ The significance of Kylemore’s walled
6
We cannot conclude our subject on “Early Gardening in Ireland” better than by
giving an account of the most elaborate and recent attempt made in this country at gardens was acknowledged, conserved and restored to public consciousness by this James Cranston found glasshouses necessary ‘to provide against the changes of
endeavour.
gardening on a gigantic scale [Kylemore]. It may be characterised as an effort at temperature, which so often, and with much suddenness, leave our fruit trees barren
solving, for the first time in Ireland, or rather working out, a great horticultural
problem.’ 4 and useless for one season at least, and to meet the increasing demand for fruit of
The 2000 conservation project established Kylemore’s conservation philosophy and fine quality, the only way is to protect the trees by glass; and to show this can be done
method. Jupp and McErlean employed historic maps, photographs, comparable cheaply and effectually in houses which, besides being applicable as hot-houses and
nineteenth-century planting plans. the comparable example of the gardens of Heligan, conservatories for the propagation and growth of flowers and plants of any
The article established Mitchell Henry as a model landlord and Kylemore as a model Cornwall gardens and a precise garden archaeological survey to establish what was to description, are elegant in design, substantial in make, well-ventilated and portable,
landscape. The estate demonstrated improvements in three disciplines - farming, be conserved. restored and reconstructed in the walled gardens of Kylemore in 2000. this little book is, with much, respect, placed before the public.’
gardening and architecture. TIn 1872 the famine of 1845-9 was a very recent memory
and this ensured that the eighteenth-century ideology of improvement, unfashionable This report reviews this process while also drawing attention to areas beyond the remit
of that project or where significance may have to be re-evaluated. This reassessment is
in the home counties of England or in less deprived landscapes, was both highly further articulated in our Method Statement. Three areas of significance have been In 1861 he wrote that ‘houses of glass, to a great extent, at the present time, must be
commendable and necessary for the ‘West of Ireland’. No other Irish estate could
match Henry’s expenditure and effort to improve the condition of his landscape and by further investigated: 1. Kylemore’s Glasshouse Design; 2. Kylemore’s Wider Designed regarded as places for the amusement, recreation or enjoyment of the affluent and
Landscape: Water Design & Route & Vista Design; 3. Kylemore’s Convent Landscape.
therefore, we have another reason why they should be erected not only in a
extension that of his tenants: substantial and useful manner, but, as far as possible, in an elegant one too.’
This analysis infoms the Recommednations.
With enterprise and energy, there is no limit to what can be achieved even in the
most unpromising places. We wish there were a few more energetic attempts at
improvement like Mr. henry’s. His property, we believe, consist of 300,000 acres - an He found ‘side and end walls’ to be ‘both costly and ugly’, and furthermore ‘not
requisite in the formation of glass buildings for fruit and flowers, although in stove or
1 The Irish Builder, 15 May 1872, pps. 138-139: ‘Notes on Early Gardening in Ireland, Fourth propagating houses where considerable artificial heat is required, and in which it is
Part- Conclusion’
thought necessary to place the plants on stages.’ 7
2 The Gardener’s Magazine,, vols. 1&2, 1826-7: ‘On the Present State of Gardening in Ireland, This led him to patent a system for building glasshouses ‘almost entirely of glass,
with Hints for its Further Improvement’
5 The Irish Builder, 15 May 1872, pps. 138-139: ‘Notes on Early Gardening in Ireland, Fourth rising in a curvilinear shape directly out of a green lawn, with no horizontal patch of
3 Transactions of the RIA, vol. IV, ‘Antiquities’, 1790, Dublin 1778–1800, pp. 17-19 Part- Conclusion’ brickwork under it, red and monotonous- no heavy timbers or framing, large and
strong, to make up for immatured design or bad construction- no flaps or shutters
4 The Irish Builder, 15 May 1872, pps. 138-139: ‘Notes on Early Gardening in Ireland, Fourth 6 Belinda Jupp & Thomas Mc Erlean, ‘Kylemore Abbey; Walled Garden Restoration Project’,
Part- Conclusion’ unpublished report, 1995 7 Cranston’s Patent Buildings for Horticulture, Birmingham (T. Underwood), 1861, p. 18