Page 6 - 0FINAL Neo Gothic Church 1754 Report compressed

CA THAL CRIMMINS AR CHITECT 6 Conservation Appraisal of Walled Garden and Historic landscape of Kylemore Abbey
Entrance Route.jpg
Water Diagram.jpg
The Significance of Kylemore’s Wider Landscape:
The Design and Control of Water
The significance of the Kylemore landscape is connected its novel technological use of
hydroelectric power while the careful control of water and water pressure was and is
significant for the success of the walled garden. Aerial photographs indicate that
Kylemore’s reservoir lake, located immediately north of the walled garden, was
dammed and discharged into a man-made channel which at some point was fed into a
cast-iron pipe or pipes. One or some of these provided water to the main house,
stables and to other points on the estate.
The walled garden was situated so that the stream fed by the reservoir lake could be
tapped to water it. The natural stream bed was moved so as to approximately bisect
the garden into the ornamental gardens to the east and the kitchen garden to the
west. A steady supply of water was provided by cast iron pipe to the pumping house in
the walled garden. This ensured that the water was provided at a higher pressure than
if the stream had been diverted into pipes at lower levels or from within the garden.
The reservoir at the top of the hill ensured a constant supply of water, even in drought
conditions (unlikely in Co. Galway but still possible). The value of the plants would
have required such a system. All of the greenhouses were designed for specific
humidity and watering requirements.
Once within the walled garden the stream was channelled into two manmade
approximate semicircles and featured rustic timber bridges and a careful planting
scheme, most clearly indicated in the Thomas Wynne’ s photo (NLI WYN104).
NLI WYN 104
www. architect.crimmins.ie
Farming Route.jpg
The Significance of Kylemore’s Wider Landscape:
The Pleasure Grounds, Designed Routes & Vistas
The Gothic revival castle positioned on a raised castellated terrace and its connected
miniature memorial church were set off by a wider landscape of extensive pleasure
grounds and walks that stretched along the south-facing mountain slopes. The walks
were woven through a stepped coniferous planting scheme that rose to meet the gorse
of the mountainside.
The pleasure grounds’ lower regions featured a leisure landscape for fishing and
shooting that encompassed the various lakes. These areas were interspersed with
large field areas of carefully tended demesne grassland. Generally such demesne
grassland was stippled in the second-edition maps of the Ordnance Survey denoting
aesthetically-considered un-tenanted land. It was usually managed as grassland and
although it might sometimes have been sown with oats or other crops it would never
have been planted with cabbages or potatoes- it was not intended to be working
farmland and it had a high quotient of landscape design. Views across or through such
grassland pieces, which lay along the various approach routes and leisure walks/
carriage drives, were very important and the grassland pieces were planted to enhance
such views.
The significance of each route was indicated by its planting. Formal approach routes
featured rhododendrons, pampas grasses and other specimen plants to provide
interest for those travelling by carriage or riding or walking along such routes. The
carriage routes through the pleasure grounds to the walled garden featured a variety
of specimen conifers and many of these still frame views across the lakes. The more
utilitarian/farming routes were bounded with split board fences.