IRISH GARDENING. 



A Connemara Garden. 



By Murray Hornibrook. 

 It is a long stretch of road between Gahvay and 

 Clifden, and although in its first 17 miles — to 

 Oughterard — it passes Ihroiigii scenery at times 

 picturesque and beautiful, iipon leaving thir; 

 town and mouiiting the first hill one feels that 

 one has left civilisation behind one ; no longer 

 does the road skirt Avell-tinibered parks, but it 

 plunges down steeply to a treeless region, of bog, 

 heather and lake, up hill and down dale the 

 unfenced road pierces its way through the other- 

 wise tractless bog for mile after mile, skirting 

 the fringes of an endless number of lakes and the 

 bases of the Maam Turk and Twelve Pins 

 Mountains; for a time the lonehneps and majesty 

 of this scenery is 

 absorbing, but after 

 15 or 20 miles of it 

 one welcomes all 

 the more eagerly 

 the sudden change 

 to a view of a tree- 

 topped hill with a 

 house and patches 

 of colour standing 

 out, which a sudden 

 bend to the left of 

 the road, about 3 

 miles beyond Re- 

 cess, discloses. 



The road has been 

 for some time hug- 

 ging the shores of 

 Derryclare Lough 

 and Lough Atry. 



Now, suddenly leaving them and swinging and 

 rising to the left, one breasts a hill and finds one- 

 self looking at a most charming picture. At 

 one's feet lies the so-called " Canal " — a narrow 

 arm of water issuing under Derryclare Bridge — 

 winding beneath us through the Luncheon pool 

 to where it joins Upper Ballinahinch Lough in 

 Chapel Bay ; thence the lake stretches away 

 before us — past the Salmon Rock, the Islands, 

 Red Martin's Bay and " Mr. James' Bay " — till 

 it closes in on the horizon at Snabeg — ^the 

 narrow channel joining Upper to Lower Ballina- 

 hinch. On our r'ght the rocky sides of Ben 

 Derryclare and Ben Lettery rise sheer from the 

 lake shore for some 2,000 feet. On our extreme 

 left the line of low undulating heather-clad hills 

 separating us from the Atlantic is unbroken 

 save where the conical form of Cashel Mountain 

 raises its head above them. From where we 

 stand the road dips suddenly, curving to the left 

 roi;nd Chapel Baj', with a tinj' R. C. chapel on itp 



Vn':\V IN THE CiAliDENS 



very edge, then rises again abruptly to the crown 

 of a hill. This hill is the highest point of the 

 narrow neck of land separating Ballinahinch 

 Lf ugh and Loiigh Nabrucka. and on its 

 ;ummit — facing us — Mr. Arthur V. Willcox has 

 built Lisnabrucka House, and year by year the 

 process of turning the bare slopes of the hill into 

 wood and garden proceeds. The view from the 

 house across the lake to Ben Lettery is probably 

 unsurpasred by any other in the United King- 

 dom. The short avenue from the road to the 

 house is cut through sohd rock ; down the rock 

 face hang Rambler Roses and the local wild rose 

 of wonderful shrimp pink ; from every crack and 

 cranny of the rock sprout hybrid Dianthus, 

 mostly self-sown hybrids of D. cfesius and D. 

 superlus, and everywhere one sees the bright 



purple of Daboecia 

 pohfera — the Con- 

 nemara Heath. 



Leaving the 

 avenue we descend 

 some steps — on our 

 right a slope covered 

 with Rhododendron 

 species and hybrids, 

 L o n i c e r a s and 

 flowering shrubs — 

 to the first of the 

 garden terraces ; 

 here in summer 

 were masses of 

 Liliii.ms — auratum 

 jilatyphyllum, Kra- 

 mer! and rubellum, 

 \T LisNAi5i;ucKA HousE. GladioH and Car- 



nations backed by 

 7 foot hedges of Escallonia. Passing through this 

 hedge and skirting another Rhododendron- 

 covered slope we reach the first rock-work — 

 a large raised rock garden sloping up to tlie wall. 

 The climate of Lisnabiucka seems very 

 acceptable to the majority of alpines, and, as 

 tlie owner of the garden takes a keen, and 

 knowledga])le interest in such plants, it is not 

 surprising to find the gartlen space devoted to 

 their culture to be increasing yearly. 



Here, on the first rock-work, are heaps of good 

 things. All the Aizoon Saxifrages ajipeared tobe 

 flourishing and of tlie more difficult Kabschias, 

 S. dalmatica and S. Boryi, were pictures of 

 health, and everywhere perking up amongst 

 them one finds Walilenbergia hederacea antl 

 Veronica canescens smothered in blossom. Here, 

 too, are most of the d^varf Campanulas — C 

 piilla, C. G. F. Wilson, C. Garganica and a 

 curious constricted form of C. rotundifolia from 

 Dogs' Bay, Roundstone. Higher up one notices 



