The Souter Family, Killiney, Co Dublin / souterfamily@eircom.net / August 2003
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The Powerscourt Estate is in the Wicklow Mountains, not far from where we live. I had seen photographs of it before, but nothing can prepare you for the impact of stepping out on the top terrace, with the view of the gardens spread out before you. It is one of those places that an artificial image can't really capture - the scale and clarity of it is beyond anything a photograph can replicate. Until fairly recently it was a private residence, but a fire in the 1970's made the house uninhabitable, and today it is largely largely a shell. It contains shops and a restaurant and some restoration work is being done, most notably in the ballroom. I wasn't particularly interested in the house though, it was the gardens that we had come to see, and you can easily spend a day there and still feel as though you need to go back to see more.
Italian Garden |
Lunch Time |
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The central Italian Garden apparently took 100 men over 12 years to complete and was started in the 1840's. The grotto is older and dates back to the 18th century. It was magical - like something straight out of a fairy story, along with the tower that we called Rapunzel's tower. Its real name is the Pepperpot Tower as it was apparently modelled after Lord Powerscourt's pepper pot. Most of the time I was concentrating on filming with the camcorder so there are lots of areas I took no photos of. Maybe next time I can concentrate on the Japanese Garden and the Walled Garden - apparently the longest herbaceous border in Ireland.
Terrace |
View of Lake |
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Click on each photo to get an expanded view.
