Mount Stewart

About the garden

Nestling on the shoreline of Strangford Louch and just 45 minutes from Belfast are the Londonderry House and Gardens, Mount Stewart.

Protection from the Ards Peninsula creates a climate so mild and moist that a breath-taking array of plants from temperate and sub-tropical climates from around the world can thrive here. Mount Stewart is a garden heavily remodelled between 1921 and 1959 by Edith, Lady Londonderry, who not only amassed a staggering array of plants but created eight acres of formal gardens.

These are created as a series of Arts and Crafts garden rooms,  many recreated from memories of her travels, or read about during her extensive garden research form her extensive book collection.

The main vista of the house utilises the view across Strangford Lough from the South Terrace, to the Italian and Spanish Gardens. The West view captures the vista across the Sunk Garden, the Shamrock and out into the ornamental woodland called the Lily Wood, where we are recreating her famous lily collection, including large drifts of Cardiocrinum gigantuem, the giant Himalayan lily.  

To the East is the Dodo Terrace, Fountain Walk and the playful Mairi Garden, named after her daughter, Lady Mairi Bury and modelled on the children’s nursery rhyme, Mary, Mary. Extending beyond the house, the gardens open to a series of Woodland Walks that lead to the lake, where majestic trees and tender conifers provide shade for giant tree ferns and monstrous rhododendrons.  

On a hill above the lake nestles the Londonderry Burial ground, Tir nan Og, the land of the forever young. At the upper end of the garden sits the Walled Garden, which contains the Rose Garden, but like all the other garden areas this also contains both hardy and tender plants.

Please note: this garden is partially accessible.