The great gardens restored to health looks a garden given a new lease of life

Just when you thought that the countryside was turning into one great, big golf course to entertain batches of tourists, here's an astonishing fact: gardens are more popular than golf with our overseas visitors. According to the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Irish gardens received an average of 600,000 foreign visitors annually in the four years up to 1996 - almost three times the number of people who came here to swing a golf club.

For years, it has been the well-established gardens, such as Powerscourt in Co Wicklow and Mount Stewart in Co Down, that received the bulk of the visitors. But the country is studded with other grand estates, and recently they have started to open their gates to the public to present newly refurbished gardens. Some of these historic demesnes had been neglected or barely-maintained for decades; others just needed an injection of money and energy to bring them back to good health.

Help came in spring of 1994 with the Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Programme. The scheme is grant-aided by the European Regional Development Fund and has a £4 million allocation - although it looks as if the total spend will be less than £3 million when the project finishes at the end of 1999. To date, according to the programme's manager, Finola Reid, 24 gardens are involved: 20 have been approved for funding, while four are being processed.

In order to qualify, a garden must be of national or international significance and must have the potential to sustain tourism. Gardens in private ownership can seek a grant for up to 50 per cent of the capital costs of the restoration. Garden owners can also apply to have a FAS community employment scheme to help carry out the work.

The first garden covered by scheme was at Ballinlough Castle, in Co Westmeath, the home of Sir John and Lady Nugent. The castle has been home to the Nugents since it was built in the 17th century on the site of a medieval tower house. At that time the family name was O'Reilly, but in 1812 when Hugh O'Reilly married a Nugent - the daughter of a governor of a small island in the West Indies - he took her name.

The Nugent family was very wealthy, and, according to John Nugent, the present owner, it may have been her dowry that built up Ballinlough Castle into the impressive pile that we see today. Certainly, it is likely that the Nugent coffers funded the construction of the walled garden, which dates from around 1820. The 3.5-acre enclosure of warm, heat-retaining brick offered shelter and protection to fruit trees, roses, vegetables and flowers in this chilly patch of the midlands.

For a time Ballinlough prospered: developments in the last century included an extension to a canal; a rustic bridge; and a woodland created and laid out with winding walks. Specimen trees were planted in the rolling parkland, and a new lake was dug during the Famine, to link up with an existing natural lake, a nine-acre body of water.

But, as with many old Irish estates, changing times took their toll. When Sir Hugh Nugent (father of today's John Nugent) inherited earlier in this century, most of the land had been taken by the Land Commission, the castle was scheduled for demolition and the walled garden was a mess. Sir Hugh and his wife rescued the great house and reassembled the estate, buying back the land piecemeal. They re-established the woodland paths, planted new trees, dredged the lake and refurbished the walled garden. However, as always, nature was trying to reclaim its territory, and things were barely under control when the present Nugents, John and Pepe, came in 1990. There was much work to be done, but how to do it was the question. In 1994, Sir John found the answer in The Irish Times, in an article written by Jim Reynolds on the Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Programme.

The Nugents got a £159,000 grant, and work started in spring 1995. The sympathetic plans for the walled gardens - which included a double herbaceous border, aesthetically-aligned paths, a still pool and many pleasing vistas - were drawn up by Jim Reynolds, and realised by Ursula Walsh, the newly-appointed head gardener. Ursula, a landscape architecture graduate from UCD, was uniquely qualified for the job, having done her thesis on Ballinlough's gardens.

Beyond the walled gardens, the grounds have been sensitively restored so that the great house sits in an idyllic landscape of meadows, water and woods and an old building has been transformed into a tea room.

The gardens - after a restoration which came in "under" budget - were formally opened last May by the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr Jim McDaid. In his speech, he rightly praised the "careful conservation and invisible mending" that has led to Ballinlough's current gorgeous state. He was lavish in his appreciation of the peace and tranquillity of the demesne. And, in an unscripted addendum, he noted that as a doctor he would happily prescribe "a visit to Ballinlough Castle Gardens instead of Valium".

Ballinlough Castle Gardens reopen on Sunday, August 16th.