A garden lover’s guide to County Laois, by Catherine FitzGerald

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I got to know Laois during my student days at Trinity College Dublin. I would drive with friends down to Glin Castle, my family home in County Limerick, and stop off to picnic among the ancient stones of the dramatic Rock of Dunamase, a ruined fortified castle on high ground between Portlaoise and Stradbally. Eating our sandwiches, surrounded by a plain, we could see across many counties to the beautiful Slieve Bloom Mountains in the distance.

From the Rock it’s a short drive to Ballintubbert Gardens & House, where Minnie Preston and I run the Festival of Gardens and Nature in early May. The festival is set within Ballintubbert’s arts and crafts-style garden, with hornbeam, yew, a hazel grove and an apple orchard that flowers in time for the festival. We bring together speakers from the world of contemporary garden design, organic growing, garden history and ecology. This year is our third outing.

Since launching the festival in 2024, I have been spending more time in Laois, where Minnie and I plan the programme. We’ll start the day with porridge oats from the wonderful Merry Mill in Vicarstown. Or we might have our favourite Ballyrider House granola, which we buy from the Fruit ‘N Nut Health Store in Portlaoise. We’ll eat fresh bread and pastries from Mueller & O’Connell Bakery in Abbeyleix, and later, if in need of a pause, we might head to Morrissey’s for a drink. In my earlier years, I would always have had a pint of Guinness but now I order a boring old half.

We might be found chatting with Roz Jellett, Minnie’s sister-in-law, who devises the design of the festival stages. She also creates the stages and sets for the unmissable Festival of Writing and Ideas in Borris, County Carlow, and for the Electric Picnic, Ireland’s largest music and arts festival that takes place every August in nearby Stradbally Hall. My husband, the actor Dominic West, is a regular – and now it’s our children who want to go.

My love of gardening came from a childhood spent growing up at Glin Castle on the Shannon Estuary, about a two-hour drive from Laois. Not far from the Atlantic, the warming effects of the Gulf Stream foster a range of exotic trees and shrubs: Chilean myrtle, magnolias and ancient Killarney oaks, their outstretched arms running with tiny ferns and moss. There is always something special in flower in the garden – witch hazels with their spidery blooms emerging from the bare bark in December, and evergreen camellias covered in rose-pink and white flowers by January. I bring armfuls into the house.

When I was 12, I had an epiphany in Derreen Garden, County Kerry. The 60-acre gardens, which run down to the sea near Kenmare Bay, are overlooked by Knockatee Mountain. I was transfixed by the giant tree ferns gone native, the great weighty swags of copper-green lichens hanging from branches and the rhododendrons, which were collected in the Himalayas in the 19th century, seeded between the giant rocks. These rich impressions led me to horticultural studies at RHS Wisley and founding a landscape design company with landscape architect Mark Lutyens. We work between Somerset and Glin, with jobs in the UK and Ireland.

I’d highly recommend a stay at Ballyfin, where I’m lucky enough to work on the gardens, which are set within 614 acres of parkland with incredible trees. Overlooking a lake with swans, it is the perfect place to retreat to from the stresses and bustle of life. My business partner Mark and I are working to create more spaces around the house where people can sit among lovely atmospheric planting – frothing roses, grey artemisias and clouds of bellflower. We’ve also planted green Hydrangea paniculata “Limelight” and soft fluffy Pennisetum to add softness, all within a formal structure of yew hedging – plants that will blend well with the surrounding naturally rolling green parkland.

Sam Moody, the former head chef at Ballyfin, and his wife, Emily, are running Bramley, a Michelin-listed restaurant in Abbeyleix. I enjoyed the tasting menu there the other day. Fresh scallops, followed by vegetables grown nearby and full of flavour. I had heirloom carrots with goat’s curd and black garlic and, for pudding, the most delicious apple and blackcurrant compote with toasted seeds and apple ice.

I’d also recommend the nearby Green Barn restaurant at Burtown House & Gardens, which is run by the Fennell family. They produce nearly all the vegetables and fruit from the walled garden. What sticks in my mind are their colourful salads – decorated with nasturtiums and heartsease violas and zinging with fresh herbs. If you’re in the mood for some shopping, The Green Barn also sells an eclectic mix of antiques, lighting and art – recently I bought six prints by the botanical artist Wendy Walsh, grandmother to James Fennell, who runs The Green Barn with his wife, Joanna. I’m having them all framed. Another must for shopping is The Store Yard in Portlaoise, which sells architectural salvage and antiques. 

I always feel that gardens have a deep emotional pull for people – they get under our skin and nourish our souls. Creating atmosphere and emotional resonance is something I think about when designing. Humans need to connect with nature, hear the birds, watch bulbs nosing up through the soil and enjoy the sound of insects and bees buzzing around. For me, it’s not just about what we see and all that beautiful planting, it’s that “inward eye” Wordsworth writes about – which goes on to sustain us long afterwards. 

The Festival of Gardens and Nature is at Ballintubbert Gardens & House 2-3 May