Jane Powers visits Woodstock House, the setting for next weekend's Kilkenny Arts Festival concerts
It's well over 10 years since I first visited the historic demesne at Woodstock House in Inistioge, Co Kilkenny. Then, it was under the guardianship of Coillte, which had planted forestry in the outer parts of the property. But at the heart of the estate, the once-famous gardens and pleasure grounds seemed a forgotten place, populated only by a handful of sheep and cattle who grazed the grass in front of the broken shell of the 18th-century house.
The gaunt, roofless ruin, once a fine residence, had been burnt out in 1922 after being occupied by the Black and Tans. Despite its forlorn condition, under a dark-green blanket of ivy, the stately home maintained its beautiful proportions, making a deeply romantic picture - as well as an ineffably sad one.
Between 80 and 50 years prior to this, Woodstock was seeing an unprecedented amount of landscaping activity: the making of gardens, laying out of avenues and building of hothouses. The Duke of Richmond's daughter, Lady Louisa Lennox, who married Woodstock's owner, Colonel William Tighe in 1825, was largely responsible for this remarkable horticultural creation.
Tragically, her only child died in infancy, and one can imagine that she must have channelled her energies into the gardens, which were laid out on a grand scale. They were so exceptional that in 1865 one Victorian traveller described them as having "no equal in the United Kingdom".
Among Lady Louisa's achievements was the planting of numerous exotic trees in the pleasure grounds, including those recently arrived from the New World - such as giant redwoods and other conifers. An 1869 issue of the Irish fortnightly publication, The Gardener's Record, reported that "The turf is kept as smooth as a carpet and not a tree on it that is not a picture of beauty."
If you do the depressing calculations, it shows that many of these trees would have been coming into their early adulthood in the 1920s, only for the house to be burnt, and eventually, to be abandoned. But houses, trees and gardens are inevitably sacrificed during the difficult birth of a nation. In the wake of such momentous happenings, it's probably a luxury to look further back with a sentimental eye.
My next visit, just a couple of weeks ago, was a curious thing. In 1999 Woodstock was handed over to Kilkenny County Council, and since then, it has been the subject of a €1.12 million restoration (with another €1.2 million to be spent in the current phase). It was curious, because the cleaned-up demesne, on a sunny summer day, seemed strangely lacking in romance - despite the presence of several of Lady Louisa's original trees, now grown to champion status.
The house, still a ruin (and now a dangerous one following a gale in 2001) is penned in behind no-go fencing, and has been stripped of its melancholic covering of ivy. And throughout the gardens, where before there had been an air of Byronic decay, the hands of the restorers have been at work.
But, pining for the romance and decay of a decade ago is not particularly rational, as Woodstock was rescued just in time: another decade or two and the house would have disintegrated into a heap, and the gardens utterly disappeared. And, of course, rawness must precede a future maturity. The walled garden will fill out in time, the rose arches will grow a fur of lichen, and the exposed white quartzite rockery will be dulled down by a coating of plants.
Yet there are parts of the garden that retain much of their earlier appeal (for this curmudgeonly visitor, at least). Most spectacular of these is the Monkey Puzzle Avenue, where a double line of the prehistoric-looking trees marches off into an oak-and-beech wood. Their fat trunks (including a champion monkey puzzle with a girth of 3.75 metres) rise from the ground like giant elephant feet. The bark of each is different: some are almost smooth, marked only by regular pimples where branches have been pruned off; others are grossly fissured and striated. Some have neat, well organised crowns while on others, the branches swoop boldly through the air.
The 31 pairs of Araucaria araucana were planted in 1845, at a time when the Victorians were mad for monkey puzzles. They had been re-introduced to Europe by William Lobb in 1844, although Archibald Menzies had first brought seed in 1795. Avenues were planted throughout Britain and Ireland in the 19th century. Many, alas, succumbed to old age or bad drainage. Woodstock's triumphal parade of the Chilean giants is now the longest and most mature in Europe, according to head gardener John Delaney.
Its longevity is owing, no doubt, to an earlier head gardener, Charles McDonald, who came into Lady Louisa's employment in 1860. Aware that the trees - now between four and 14 feet tall - were suffering from inadequate drainage, he had them all dug up and replanted on mounds. After this treatment, they thrived, although when Woodstock entered its abandoned years, the drains became blocked again and some of the trees were lost.
In 2000, 22 replacements were planted, and these are now growing happily (especially in this moist summer). These had to be brought in from Italy, but future reinforcements will be seedlings of Woodstock's own trees. "We're growing our own from seed now," says Claire Murphy, the county council's landscape architect in charge of the restorations.
Another avenue of equally heroic proportions is the Noble Fir Walk, where in 1878 44 pairs of north American Abies procera were planted along a quarter-mile stretch of avenue. Engulfed by the surrounding woodland over the years and very waterlogged, it was completely lost as a feature until its recent masterful restoration. Now it shoots broadly and majestically towards the house, its towering trees leading the eye optimistically upwards.
Woodstock House, Inistioge, Co Kilkenny is open all year. Admission is free. Car parking: €3.50. Note: to accommodate next weekend's musical events (see below) the gardens will be closed on Wednesday, August 4th and will reopen on Tuesday August 10th. www.woodstock.ie
FESTIVAL EVENTS
Music at Woodstock, August 7th: The Northern Chamber Orchestra plays classical and baroque music, including Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks (with pyrotechnics). August 8th: Woodstock 2004 features Hothouse Flowers, Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club, Mundy, and other Irish artists.
Music, sound and light at Kilfane Glen and Waterfall, Thomastown: Motor, by Daniel Figgis, composer in residence at Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, will be performed each night from August 11th-14th. The work involves live musicians, surround-sound and integrated video and lighting.
Tickets for the above events must be bought in advance from the Festival Box Office in Kilkenny, or online at: www.kilkennyarts.ie