Overview
The reason to come to Heywood is a garden Edwin Lutyens designed and Gertrude Jekyll is thought to have planted – a sunken oval terrace stepping down to a long pool ringed by carved stone turtles, one of only a handful of Lutyens–Jekyll gardens in Ireland. The house it was built to complement is gone: it burned in 1950 and was pulled down the year after, so the formal garden now sits on its hillside with no mansion behind it.
The wider estate runs to about 50 acres of parkland, woodland and three lakes, on a slope near Ballinakill in County Laois that looks southeast across seven counties. It is run by Heritage Ireland (the Office of Public Works), free to enter, open every day, and takes about an hour to walk at an easy pace. If your time is short, spend it on the formal garden rather than the parkland – that is the part worth travelling for.
History and landscape design
The estate dates to 1773, when Michael Frederick Trench came home from a Grand Tour of Europe with a vision for a Romantic landscape and the architect James Gandon to help realise the house. Trench reshaped the ground itself – moving hills, digging three lakes, planting tree belts and scattering follies along the drive.
More than a century later, around 1906, Colonel Hutchinson Poe commissioned Lutyens to lay out the formal gardens immediately around Heywood House. Working with Jekyll, Lutyens built a run of interlocking garden rooms in the Arts-and-Crafts manner between 1906 and 1912. The house is long gone – fire in 1950, demolition in 1951 – but the formal garden survives as one of the finest examples of the pair’s work in the country. The Salesian Fathers looked after the grounds from 1941 until the state took the estate on in 1993 and the OPW restored it as a public site.
Exploring the gardens
Start at the gate lodge, where panels set out the layout, then follow the route through two very different landscapes.
The Lutyens–Jekyll formal garden
The formal garden is a series of circular terraces and stone-walled rooms, once linked by a terrace running along the front of the vanished house. The set pieces:
- The sunken garden and pool: a terraced descent to an elongated oval pool, edged with carved turtles and a fountain at its heart.
- The loggia: a red-tiled structure on the upper level, carrying an inscription taken from Alexander Pope.
- Circular windows: cut into the surrounding wall, each one framing a deliberate view out over Trench’s older landscape like a picture.
- The planting: beds change with the seasons; May and June are peak colour.
Romantic parkland and lakes
Beyond the walls, the ground opens into Trench’s parkland. An avenue of pollarded lime trees leads to the high ground and the seven-county view, and the follies scattered along the old drive – an obelisk, a sham castle, a bathhouse, and the viewpoint known as Claude’s Seat – give it structure. The three lakes are good for birdwatching, with moorhens, kingfishers and the occasional red kite. The terrain is uneven and the water deep, so stay on the marked paths and wear proper footwear.
Practical information
- Admission: free. A Heritage Card is not needed here, though it covers many other OPW sites if you are visiting several.
- Opening times: daily, year-round. Oct–Mar 08:30–17:30; Apr and Sep 08:30–19:00; May–Aug 08:30–21:00.
- Facilities: free car parking by the gate lodge, toilets, interpretive panels and brochures. Guided tours run by prior appointment. There is no café on site.
- Dogs and restrictions: dogs welcome but on leads at all times. No cycling on the walkways, and no fires, camping or barbecues.
- Accessibility: the main promenade and the path to the upper terrace are wheelchair-friendly, but access is to outside areas only and several garden rooms have steps and uneven ground.
- Address: Heywood Gardens, Ballinakill, Co. Laois, R32 K4V6. Tel. 086 8107916, email heywoodgardens@opw.ie.
Getting there and nearby
Heywood is 7 km southeast of Abbeyleix, off the R432 towards Ballinakill and right beside Heywood Community School. From Dublin, take the M7 to Portlaoise, the N77 south to Abbeyleix, then the R432 towards Ballinakill; the signage is clear from the main road. Bus Éireann route 73 stops in Ballinakill, a short walk from the gate.
Emo Court, another OPW property with fine neo-classical architecture and parkland, is about 25 km north if you want to make a day of it. Otherwise, come in May or June for peak colour, and bring your own coffee – there is no café here, and the nearest is back in Ballinakill or Abbeyleix.