Irishman’s Diary: Hugh Oram

Trinity College Dublin, has had a remarkable tradition of cultivating plants going back 328 years, first in the college grounds, then at Lansdowne Road in Ballsbridge, and for nearly 50 years now, at Dartry.

The college began with a physic garden in 1687, showing the then close link between plants and medicine.

The physic garden was considered essential for medical education. A new physic garden established in 1722 had some 500 species, many foreign.

Towards the end of the 18th century Trinity had a site at Harold’ s Cross, but this was short-lived. By 1806, Trinity had abandoned its college- based physic garden in favour of a new site in the then largely rural district of Ballsbridge. However, a new physic garden was opened on Trinity’ s main campus in 2011.

The RDS bought a large site in Glasnevin in 1795 for a botanic garden – now the National Botanic Gardens – and Trinity settled into a much smaller site at Ballsbridge, which it acquired on a 175-year lease.

By 1807, it had enclosed 1.2 ha with a 3m-high wall along Shelbourne Road.

In 1832, a further piece of land was added along Pembroke Road, while in 1848, an additional plot was secured in Lansdowne Road.

A screen of Quercus Ilex trees was planted inside the railings along Lansdowne Road and many of them are still there today. The first curator at Ballsbridge was James Townsend Mackay, who stayed in the job for some 60 years; his arrival coincided with Trinity changing from regarding plants as materia medica to "pure" botany. (Materia medica explores the therapeutic properties of any substance, particularly plants.) Mackay's 600 page Flora Hibernica was the first flora of Ireland.

A remarkable collection of Trinity people were connected with the Lansdowne Road botanic garden, including in the last century Prof Walter Starkie. He became Trinity’ s first professor of Spanish in 1926, and was also an authority on gipsy life. He lived in Botanic House in the Ballsbridge garden and died as recently as 1976.

But from the 1830s onwards, the limitations of the Ballsbridge site were obvious. In the early years of that decade Richard Turner established his Hammersmith Works next door and fumes from the ironworks constantly drifted over the botanic garden.

Ironically, it was at the Hammersmith Works that the great glasshouses were created for the botanic gardens at Glasnevin, Belfast and Kew in London.

Trinity began disposing of the Ballsbridge site, piece by piece, between 1942 and 1965.

Hotels cropped up on part of the garden site. What was the Intercontinental Hotel, became Jurys and is now the Ballsbridge Hotel. Then came the old Berkeley Court Hotel, now the Clyde Court Hotel.

The Ballsbridge Hotel still has a giant Californian redwood in its grounds, another relic of the old botanic garden.

By 1968, Trinity’s botanic garden had moved to Dartry and many important plants were transferred there. The site is now partially bounded by Trinity’s new halls of residence.

Unlike the old Lansdowne Road site, Trinity owns the one in Dartry, a big advantage. It’s a delightful place, with some 1,000 plant species as well as between 100 and 200 species of trees and shrubs, from Ireland and other parts of the world. It includes a wonderfully peaceful arboretum, as well as beehives, experimental ponds and a collection of greenhouses, all under the supervision of Steve Waldren, the curator and administrator. The current director of Trinity’ s botanic garden is Prof John Parnell. The Dartry botanic garden has built up a fine reputation for plant conservation work, as well as a range of plant related research projects. The garden also hosts classes in art, gardening and wood carving as part of its outreach programme.

When I was in Dartry the other day, I met one of the residents of the botanic garden, Fluffy, a very large and delightful black cat. Steve explained that about 10 years ago, someone left a bag of four kittens at the entrance to the garden; two of the cats are still in residence, gainfully employed in rodent control. This wonderful collection of plants, shrubs and trees from many countries continues a masterly tradition of cultivation in Trinity.

Among donations in recent years was a tree fern from Australia, presented by the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney for Trinity’ s quatercentenary.