Road Trips Gardeners interested in walled gardens might want to plan a trip to Vandeleur Walled Garden and Centre, Vandeleur Demesne, Killimer Road, Kilrush , County Clare, Ireland. Once the forgotten garden of Kilrush House (home to the Vandeleur landlords), this garden has been redesigned for the 21st Century around the old path system.

Old stone walls still surround the garden that specializes in the unusual and tender plants that thrive in the area’s uniquely western latitude microclimate. The Walled Garden occupies an area of about 2.2 acres). It was positioned close to the family house, to the east side of the other buildings, which helped to protect it from the prevailing westerly winds. The garden is rectangular in shape with a widening west end. In fact, the west wall is nearly twice as long as the east wall with the north wall the longest, designed purposely to catch maximum sun for the plants.

The original member of the Vandeleur family in Ireland was said to have been a Dutch merchant, Maximillian Van der Leur, who was based in Sixmilebridge during the early 17th century. The Vandeleurs established their residency in Kilrush in 1687 when the Reverend John Vandeleur became rector of Kilrush. In 1712 several townlands in the vicinity of Kilrush were leased from the Earl of Thomond and later purchased by John Vandeleur, son of Rev. John Vandeleur in 1749. The walled demesne became the core of their property.