I don't know if it's because I learned to drive just a few short years ago, and am still feeling the first flush of excitement at being able to guide my little red car across the asphalt of Ireland, but I love the approach to a country garden almost as much as the experience of the garden itself. My pulse quickens as I shift down the gears and turn onto the final stretch of road, and I'm pleasurably alert, looking for clues in the landscape that my destination is near.
The last leg of the journey to the gardens of the 19th-century Ballindoolin House in Co Kildare, a few days before their recent opening by Charlie McCreevy, the Minister for Finance, is particularly satisfying. The 250-acre estate is in the absolute heart of the country - reached by a thin grey vein of tarmac that courses through starry-galaxy-flowered hogweed and tall grasses with lithesome seed heads. A stark ruin appears: a tower house, long since commandeered by rooks and ivy. I'm feeling nicely gothic - despite being briefly whipped back into the present century by an interlude of golden Leylandii surrounding a property. A mile further, a stand of massive beech appears, marking the entrance to the Georgian house and its quietly dormant gate lodge. My car and I coast through pasture decorated by cows and an immense purple beech before plunging into a green tunnel where more beech closes over an understorey of holly and laurel. We emerge to be greeted by that wonderful Irish phenomenon, a verdant lawn, both rain-washed and sunlit.
Ballindoolin House, a great grey limestone edifice, sits sternly and squarely in front of a paddock where animals - a mixed bag of suckler cows and their calves, sheep, goats and a po-faced llama - graze, lie or just stand and stare at time passing slowly by. The austerely beautiful house was built in 1821 by the Bors, a family of Dutch timber merchants who had come to Ireland the previous century. There was to be a portico, to soften the strict facade and provide weather cover, but funds, it appears, ran out. Perhaps the house, or its 2-acre walled garden, or the considerable outbuildings were the last straw, because half a century earlier, the Bors had been making their marks on the land with seemingly boundless gusto. In common with many estate-owners of the time they planted acres and acres of trees: they would hardly see the results in their lifetimes, but future generations were to benefit. Today half the demesne is covered by old broadleaf woodland. Christopher Bor was so keen on trees that in 1760 he planted them on top of an ancient - perhaps Iron Age - mound, after girdling it with a limestone wall. He erected a plaque to celebrate this singular feat of vandalism. Nearby, 21 years later, he built a shamrock-shaped dovecote: impractical for keeping birds, but a fine-looking building in an Arcadian landscape.
Today the mound is treeless again, except for a vast, broken stump, and the dovecote is a roofless, romantic ruin (indeed there is speculation that it may have been built originally as a picturesquely-derelict folly). The Bors have long ago left Ballindoolin House and the present owners, the Molony family, who came here six years ago, inherited what was essentially a great big restoration project. Renovating the house continues apace with a new roof on the way, and the gardens are at that encouraging in-between stage where the most daunting part of the work is done and things can only get better from now on. The showpiece is the walled kitchen garden which has been resurrected to a 19th century design, carefully reconstructed from old photographs. Daphne Levinge Shackleton drew up the plans and planting list, while 24-year-old head gardener, Thomas Hopkins has supervised much of the work. The EU-funded Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Programme has helped with funding, along with Kildare Leader 2 and FAS.
A Victorian box-edged parterre and lawn have been recreated just inside the clematisclad entrance of the walled garden while sensible vegetables, cut flowers, soft fruit, nut trees and herbs have been planted in the interior. A melon house awaits refurbishment. Inside the perimeter are various borders including one devoted to shrubs and another to David Austin's modern (but old-fashioned-looking) roses. A herbaceous border lines the brick, heat-retaining, south-facing wall, while paths edged with spring plants and autumn asters form a cross through the centre of the garden. Tremendously-lichened, espaliered apples hold their venerably-gnarled branches out, crucifixion-style, and add an authentic, timeworn note to this youthful restoration.
Outside the sanctuary of the high walls, other attractions are a mile-and-a-half forest walk (with informative signs along the way ), a splendidly ugly Victorian rockery, a craft shop and a restaurant which opens for lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. Altogether it's a most agreeable destination if you are motoring around the country.
Ballindoolin Gardens, Carbury, Co Kildare (three miles from Edenderry on the R104) are open from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday, (closed Mondays except for bank holidays) from May to September. Other times by appointment. Tel: 0405-31430, fax: 040532377, email: sundial@iol.ie