![\"Walking](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.design42.com\/ireland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/IMG_2577.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a>Walking Paths along the river with Early Spring Flowers at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Walk to Atlas Cedar at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
The Castle Park has oak and beech trees that have been around since the 1600s.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Tallest Box Hedges in the World at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
Birr Castle Gardens have the tallest box hedges in the world, over 40 Champion Trees. A Champion Tree is the largest of its species according to a standard measuring formula based on trunk circumference, tree height, and average crown. They are over 300 years old.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Birr Castle Wrought Iron Suspension Bridge Built 1820 crosses the River Camcor<\/p><\/div>\n
In the gardens of Birr Castle you can see the oldest wrought-iron bridge in Ireland, built in 1820. It crosses the River Camcor. At one end is the ancient well of St. Brendan, under a yew tree.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Birr Castle Ice house, built in the early 1800s was used to store ice and meat<\/p><\/div>\n
An ice house, also from the early 1800s, goes deep underground. Ice was cut from the lake in the winter or bought from the ice merchant. It could be stored all year. Meat was also stored in the ice house.<\/p>\n
<\/a>River Camcor at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Two rivers meet, forming a lake at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
The grounds were bogland. Lawrence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse diverted the River Camcor to where it is now and dammed it to create the lake. He excavated a system of canals and a tunnel to allow silt to settle, so the lake would be fed with clear water. His son, William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, who built the telescope, put in a waterwheel, powered by the water leaving the lake to drain the low lying areas.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Dam Creates Lake with Waterwheel to power drainage<\/p><\/div>\n
The Fernery is made from stone from nearby Slieve Bloom mountains. There is a fountain in the midst of the Fernery gravity fed from a pipe at the Waterfall leaving the lake.<\/p>\n
William Edward Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse was interested in agriculture. He visited Denmark in search of more modern and successful methods.\u00a0 He died at only 45 from wounds suffered in the Great War.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Flowering Trees and Wildflowers at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
His son, Michael the 6th Earl was a dedicated collector and cultivator of rare trees. Some established plants at Birr Castle date to his plantings in the 1920s.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Cloistered walk of hornbeam, a flowering birch at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Path through Formal Garden to the 300 years old Bavarian urns at the centre of the garden at Birr Castle<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Formal Garden at Birr Castle Gardens, through the hornbeam cloistered walk<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Formal Garden at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Formal Garden at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
Michael and his wife Anne had the greatest impact on the gardens as we see them now. \u00a0Upon their marriage in 1936, Anne, Countess of Rosse began creating a romantic formal garden, based on a 17th century Bavarian design, with a cloistered walk of hornbeam, a flowering birch. The two urns in the centre of the garden are from Bavaria and are 300 years old.<\/p>\n
<\/a>White garden bench by wall in the formal rose garden at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Flowering Tree, Daffodils and the other garden bench in the formal rose garden at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
White garden seats at either end of the formal garden were designed by Anne, Countess of Rosse. The design is of the couple\u2019s intertwining initials.<\/p>\n
They enhanced the formal gardens with a pergolaed courtyard with wisteria and a rose garden.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Walking paths with herbaceous borders at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
The Earl and Countess oversaw creation of the Arboretum, the River Garden, the terraces and herbaceous borders around the castle.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Glass house to propagate the seeds and plants at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Glass house to propagate the seeds and plants at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
They built glass houses to propagate the seeds and plants they brought back in their plant-hunting travels.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Meadows filled with daffodils<\/p><\/div>\n
The meadows, filled with wildflowers are not cut until late summer, so the flowers can reseed.<\/p>\n
Their son, Brendan Parsons, 7th Earl of Rosse has been adding to the collection for over 30 years.\u00a0 When the Dawn Redwood was discovered in China in 1945, Birr Castle Gardens received specimens. The Earl and Countess have traveled to Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Iran, South Africa, New Zealand, China and Bhutan, bringing back plant specimens.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Detail in Birr Grotto or Shell Well at Birr Castle Gardens<\/p><\/div>\n
The Birr Grotto or Shell Well is near the Millennium Garden. It has an intricate shell wall inside, echoing shell decorations that were the fashion for ladies in the 1700s. The wall was made with shells from the collection of Mariga Guinness. It is built over the Cuileann Tobar, the Well of the Holly.<\/p>\n
The gardens have huge ancient oaks, hundreds of years old. The Carroll oak was already here when the Parsons family arrived at Birr in 1620. More recently planted, the Giants Grove will form the largest grove of giant redwoods outside California. There is a gorgeous collection of various Magnolia species.<\/p>\n
<\/a>System of canals provides drainage and irrigates the garden<\/p><\/div>\n