The Ornamental Gardens

The Trellis Garden

The Trellis Garden includes a wide range of semi-tender plants that can  survive outdoors at Ardgillan. This section also includes a sundial, a raised scree bed and has a good collection of autumn flowering plants.

The Cottage/Irish Garden

The Cottage/Irish Garden has an array of shrubs and perennials planted in a cottage garden style. The objective is to increase the collection of plants of Irish origin, whether native species, varieties, or plants discovered by Irish collectors, or bred by Irish nurseries. Among the Irish plants in the present collection are: Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’ and Luma apiculata ‘Glanleam Gold’. The freestanding wall in this section is a most unusual ‘Alcove Wall’ with twenty alcoves believed to have been originally built for growing the more tender fruit such as peaches, nectarines, pears etc.

The Four Seasons Garden

The Four Seasons Garden displays colour for each season, with shrubs and bulbs for Spring, flowering plants in Summer, auburn Autumn colour and striking Winter stems that blend with variegated foliage.

The Garden Museum

The Garden Museum houses a collection of gardening tools and implements in a re-constructed range of garden buildings in the walled garden. It was built in the year 2000 with funding from the Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Fund. They stand on the site of previous garden sheds which were built in the mid 1800s.