Rock Walk, Mount Stewart Garden

- Backblip - Northern Ireland Day 4

I love visiting gardens. Dorothy Frances Gurney wrote "One is nearer God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth" and today I felt like I had a little taste of heaven.

We visited Mount Stewart. A grand 19th century house with a unique garden created by Edith, Lady Londonderry in the 1920s, where exotic plants and trees have thrived in the subtropical microclimate. Beautifully designed, with so many personal touches, particularly all the sculptures of animals, mermaids and dinosaurs on the Dodo Terrace which represent members of the Ark Club formed by Lady Londonderry.

I have chosen this view of the Pagoda from Nikko, Japan in the lake beside the Rock Walk. The outcrop of rocks lead up the hill to Tir Nan Og "Land of the Ever Young" where the family have a burial ground. There is an Irish legend which tells of a white stag that carried people to Tir Nan Og where all who lived there remained "forever young".

If you are ever in Northern Ireland, do go and experience this place for yourself.

To remind me :
Gardens - Sunken, Shamrock with the topiary hedges, Peace, Italian, Spanish, Mairi.
Grand terraces and The Loggia were we had lunch overlooking the house and Dodo Terrace.
Red squirrels, peacocks, the sundial.
The Lake, Jubilee Avenue with the White Stag planted out to celebrate the Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary, The Ladies' and the Fountain Walks.