Ireland Garden Tours

Ireland is one of Europe's most atmospheric garden destinations: green, mild, romantic and strongly shaped by water, woodland, coastal weather and private garden-making. Its gardens often feel more intimate and less formal than the great continental villa gardens, with lush planting, mossy woodland, old trees, walled gardens and sudden views to mountain, river or sea.

Dublin and County Wicklow hold a remarkable concentration of these gardens within a short distance of one another. Powerscourt's terraces look out to the Wicklow Mountains, Mount Usher follows the River Vartry, and some of the most inventive private gardens in Europe are being made in the hills and valleys south of the city.

Our Ireland garden tour

Our Ireland Garden Tour 2027 spends eight days in Dublin and Wicklow, combining great estates with private gardens where the maker's hand is present in every planting decision. July shows the gardens in their full summer development, and the whole tour stays in one region, with four nights in Enniskerry and two in central Dublin.

Gardens on the 2027 tour

• Airfield Estate — a walled garden and organic food garden in Dundrum, where ornamental planting and growing for the kitchen share one setting
• Powerscourt — Ireland's great estate garden, its terraces opening towards the Wicklow Mountains
• Russborough — a Palladian house and its parkland setting in west Wicklow
• June Blake's Garden — stone-edged beds where colour and texture change as you move through the garden
• Hunting Brook — Jimi Blake's experiments with foliage and layered planting, visited on the same day as his sister June's garden
• Patthana — artist TJ Maher's garden of colour and intimate, connected spaces
• Mount Usher — the famous Robinsonian garden along the River Vartry
• Knockrose and Corke Lodge — sheltered private planting, and a garden of foliage and architectural fragments
• A private garden, kept as a surprise until the day, and Ardán on the Howth peninsula, a varied garden made around a home on a sloping, rocky site
• National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin — Ireland's national collection, with the restored Turner Curvilinear Range and Great Palm House

When to visit

Late spring brings the rhododendrons and woodland gardens into flower, while summer is the time to see Ireland's borders, walled gardens and contemporary planting at their fullest. Our 2027 tour travels in mid-July, when the long days and mild weather suit full garden days. Ireland's damp, temperate climate keeps its gardens green and generous well into September. Our planning guide covers the seasons in detail: Best Time to Visit Ireland for Gardens.

Ireland garden guides

Detailed guides to Irish gardens: what makes each significant, what to look for and why it belongs on a specialist garden tour.

Dublin and Wicklow

• Powerscourt — Ireland's great estate garden below the Wicklow Mountains
• Mount Usher — the famous Robinsonian garden on the River Vartry
• June Blake's Garden — contemporary planting in County Wicklow
• Hunting Brook — a bold contemporary plantsman's garden
• National Botanic Gardens, Dublin — Ireland's national collection

Cork and Kerry

The south-west lies outside our 2027 itinerary, but its Gulf Stream gardens are among the most remarkable in Ireland, with subtropical planting flourishing on the coast of Kerry and West Cork.

• Garinish Island / Ilnacullin — the island garden of Bantry Bay
• Bantry House & Gardens — terraces above Bantry Bay
• Derreen Gardens — subtropical woodland planting in County Kerry
• Blarney Castle Gardens — woodland, water and unusual collections
• Fota Arboretum — a major tree and shrub collection near Cork