Devonshire Day 2012 - Another Perfect Mothers' Day

The Upper Gardens Lismore Castle

Yesterday was the 9th Annual Devonshire Day held in Lismore Castle as the main fundraiser for the annual Immrama Festival of Travel writing and this year will  be the 10th Immrama Festival so it's a very special anniversary - watch this space for updates and programme announcements after the launch on April 19th! I just want to share some of the photos of yesterday with you - and link you to previous posts on Devonshire Day which I've blogged about since 2009 - the first Devonshire Day after I started the blog in December 2008. Here are the links to the 2010 and 2011 posts.

We were blessed with perfect weather yesterday - and we always say St. Carthage our Patron Saint of Lismore is looking down on his own home town with favour. Well, he came from Rahan in Co. Offaly but we claim him as our own as his name is synonymous with Lismore, whichever one you want - as the Australian Lismore has a St. Carthage's Cathedral also and is our Twin Town, and we have two St. Carthage's - the Church of Ireland Cathedral and the Catholic Church.

The Joseph Paxton Greenhouse/Vinery and raised beds

The Lower Gardens of Lismore Castle

The day is a series of five guided walks through the spring gardens of Lismore Castle with the Head Gardener Chris Tull at the helm, and his love and enthusiasm for the gardens shines through all the way - he never flags even after six hours or more,  he displays the same humour and passion with the final group as with the first. I should know, as I accompany each group, tasteful in my garish yellow Hi-Viz jacket and carrying my First-Aid kit, just in case anyone decides to take a tumble or keel over - all in the name of "elf'n'safety"! Luckily no-one has thus far, although a few years ago in particularly vile weather some of the punters nearly came a cropper on the slippery slopes of the lower garden where the mud had churned up into a veritable mire. At least this year the mild winter meant the gardens were in magnificent bloom and some of the magnolias were a little early while others were late having not fully recovered from the Arctic winter of 2010/11.

Chris and Antony Gormley's Man Out Of Water

The walks are preceded by the piece de resistance - the Devonshire Cream Tea served by the Butlers of the Duke of Devonshire in the Pugin Room - the Ballroom and former Chapel designed by Pugin, the famous designer of Westminster Houses Of Parliament in London. The tea is served on monogrammed china and with full silver service, and is very posh. As two of our sons worked there for years as butlers when they were students we tend to take it for granted, but it is very other-worldly for the visitors. A taste of how the other half (or more like the 1%) live, if you will. And that's a topic for debate another day!

Devonshire Cream Tea in the Pugin Room

But I digress - back to the tea. The punters are treated to a series of talks during their tea - on the history of the Castle, Lismore, the Pugin connection and the Pugin Room in particular, and then Chris talks about the gardens and during the walkabout he is a mine of information on Joseph Paxton who built the Glasshouses and designed the gardens initially, and then the contemporary influences of the Cavendish family who inaugurated a Sculpture Garden throughout the gardens, with many contemporary artists having permanent exhibits. Eilis O'Connell has a couple of pieces, and Antony Gormley is probably the best known with his "Learning to be I" man figure - a mould of his own body on a cold day as Chris tells it! I leave you to judge. Gormley's signature piece is the Angel of the North in Newcastle in England, and 100 of his body figures are dotting the English coastline at Crosby near Liverpool.

Over the Inches at sunset from the Castle Dining Room

The Castle Arts Gallery will be open throughout the summer along with the gardens and the ticket entry includes both. Each year there's a different  exhibition usually with guest curators, and it is always avant garde and of international renown but not to everyone's taste. So if you're expecting art a-la the National Galleries, you might be disappointed! This is also the first year there was no Sotheby's Irish Sale Preview in Lismore Castle Arts, which is missed by me as I loved it. But that's the downside of the recession, and we have to put up with it. I'm sure it cost someone a fortune to tour with those artworks worth millions.

Knitter extraordinaire Agnes, with Kevin 

So I  hope you enjoy the photos  and the post - I met a lady who was here last year and she had the most amazing Aran outfit, which she designed and knitted herself - I was gobsmacked by her skill and tenacity - she had a beret, mittens, cowl, bag and calf-length coat - all in fabulous intricate Aran patterns. You can see the photo here as I took some to send her, and I hope she likes them as much as I did seeing them and meeting her. She's called Agnes and she comes from Waterford.

Chris Tull stands on the Ice-House talking to the crowd

I've been asked to do a Guest Post over on the Immrama Blog that hubby Jan moderates in his role as the Immrama Festival Administrator and coordinator of Devonshire Day, and it's a nice family collaboration. Hope you enjoy browsing the blog which is linked to the Immrama Website. 

You can see the full gallery of photos from yesterday over on the Immrama Facebook page here and do click Like when you visit!

Dates for your Diary: 

• April 19th for the Launch of Immrama 2012 - the Tenth Immrama which will be very special! 
• Immrama 2012 will take place in Lismore from 7th-10th June 2012. Save the weekend! 

Immrama 2011 Launch - An Evening of Anticipation in Lismore Castle

Lismore Castle in evening shadows

Last Tuesday saw the launch of the Immrama 2011 - the 9th Lismore Festival of Travel Writing - in Lismore Castle's renowned Pugin Room. As in previous years, the launch is a much anticipated event as people wait to see what the lineup for this year will be. As ever it didn't disappoint and while the names may not be as familiar to everyone as in other years it still promises to be a great weekend. It has become a tradition for me to blog about the launch and the fundraising events like Devonshire Day and the Table Quiz, so I'll continue that with this short post and some photos.

If you click on the link to the Immrama blog on the website here,  you will see the entire programme on a page - and the revamped website hosted as usual by Déise Design (see, the Deise name - with or without the fada - keeps cropping up in Waterford!) from Dungarvan. There is no point in repeating everything that you can read from that blog; suffice to say that there is already a surge in bookings and there will be as good a following as in previous years - the brand alone inspires such loyalty that people book from year to year without even knowing the line-up.

Jan and me at the launch (thanks to David Clynch, Photographer)

Conor O'Clery, the peripatetic former Irish Times correspondent, is the keynote speaker on the Saturday afternoon, and he should be an entertaining and riveting speaker, with his 33 years of foreign correspondence and his books to draw on for inspiration. What I also like about this year's Immrama is the recognition of blogging in travel writing with the presence of Rolf Potts and a conversation forum on blogging with veteran friend of Immrama and former literary breakfast speaker Manchán Magan facilitating. He will include couchsurfing, a terrific phenomenon I wish had been there in my backpacking youth and which is embraced by one friend here in Lismore with great enthusiasm - go Jane! Social media in this era of Twitter and Facebook can't be ignored and it is good to elevate the oft-maligned world of blogging to give it some parity with the published hard-copy written word.

Ed Lynch, MC for the evening

Other speakers include Alex Von Tunzelmann and Sara Wheeler, Irish Poet Theo Dorgan, and Anthony Sattin and William Blacker, whose book inspired the theme title for Immrama 2011 - Along the Enchanted Way...Travellers Past and Present.Of course there's a nod to On Raglan Road, that wonderful Irish poem by Patrick Kavanagh turned hit ballad by Luke Kelly of The Dubliners, which includes the line Along the Enchanted Way.

Peter Dowd, Immrama President

A large part of the attraction is the venue of Lismore as a beautiful town with its own charms and this has been documented far and wide by previous Immrama visitors and speakers. This includes luminaries like the aforementioned  Manchán Magan, the eccentric Irish writer, eclectic traveller to far-flung parts and intrepid house-builder of an eco-dwelling extraordinaire in the Irish midlands which has earned him the soubriquet of an Irish Hermit by John Murray in a recent Radio One programme on people who chose to live outside society as we have come to know it! He's written glowingly on Lismore here in his Irish Times Travel Supplement - there's a whole archive of his articles but many of the older ones are subscription only (which is really stingy of the Times).

More internationally, Michael Shapiro, who visited Lismore last year for Immrama with his fiancée Jacqueline Yao, wrote a great piece on Lismore and Immrama that has a lovly romantic twist at the end! There's an audio link here to an interview he did recently for Arthur Frommer's Travel Show He's interviewed Dervla Murphy, our own Lismore travel writer of acclaim, and she has lent her illustrious name to Teen Travel Writing Award, a new venture for Immrama supported by the County Library. Fitting, as Dervla's Lismore roots began when her father arrived here to take up the County Librarian post a few months before she was born in 1931.

All in all we had a pleasant couple of hours in the Pugin Room of the castle. There was a nice crowd there, a mix of Immrama organisers and committee members, officials from the Co. Council who have seconded some staff to the festival, and the many friends and supporters of Immrama over the years, without whom the festival just wouldn't happen as their goodwill as well as financial sponsorship is crucial for the ongoing success of such a community venture. We are very proud here in Lismore of Immrama's commitment to maintaining its community core - long may it continue well into its second decade. As the Chairman of Immrama said at the launch - it would only work in Lismore - take it out of this location and it just wouldn't be the same.

Orla Russell, Mayor of Lismore

Ger Barron, Deputy County Mayor

Ray O'Dwyer County Manager

Margaret O'Sullivan, Immrama programmer

Bernard Leddy Immrama Chairman

Audience at Immrama Launch

Attentive Audience

I hope you enjoy the photos and get a sense of the launch atmosphere - it wasn't just all speeches, there was a lot of chatting and cheese and wine - and afterwards we repaired to Foley's on The Mall for a few scoops, as they say. It wasn't great to have such an event in the midweek with work the next day but I was very prudent, and was home not too long after midnight!

Devonshire Day 2011 - A Special Spring Preview of Lismore Castle Gardens

Enjoying cream tea in the Pugin Room Lismore Castle

Today was a beautiful crisp sunny Spring day - the birds were singing, there was a coating of hoar frost on the grass and cars and rooftops this morning before the early sun slanted across the shadows to thaw everything and burn a few shrubs with leaf-burn - but as it was Devonshire Day 2011 all we were interested in was the actual weather, as Ross O'Carroll-Kelly might say.

When I went to bed last  night - quite late as is my wont in the weekends - the cars were white with frost, as forecasted. This morning dawned bright crisp and sunny. Perfect for the event that's become enshrined in Lismore fundraising folklore as a day to be enjoyed by visitors from far and near.

Farmers' Market Lismore Castle Avenue

It's the second event after the Table Quiz in January that's become a fixture as a fundraiser for Immrama Festival of Travel Writing, and we have been involved since the outset 8 years ago. The event receives widespread publicity in the local and national press, and people from all over come to it, many who return year after year.

This year we were delighted to welcome our most recent distinguished guest - Ciara Conway TD - our newly elected Labour Party member for Waterford about whom I've blogged extensively in the run-up to and beyond the election.

Bernard gives his talk on Lismore history

Chris talking about the Castle and gardens

The day consists of a cream tea in the Pugin Room of Lismore Castle, which is a privilege in itself as the Pugin Room is never open to the public during the rest of the  year. It is only on Devonshire Day when people get to see and hear the history of the castle which is in private ownership of the Duke of Devonshire, who's had it on and off for centuries. A last bastion of colonialism, it has shrunk in size considerably since the days of Sir Walter Raleigh when it was a huge estate. The Land Acts returned a lot of the arable land to the people and the Castle retains about 10,000 acres of which 8,000 is forested woodland. The rest is a working farm with managers and staff. The castle runs itself by being an upmarket B&B with rates of (those of you who've read previous posts on Devonshire Day will be familiar with this) about €35,000 per week for a party of 12! So it's obviously only for the well-heeled.

The gardens looked lovely despite the harsh cold winter - compared to last year's Devonshire Day, which followed a really hard late winter, this year's winter was earlier and by January and February the weather was warmer and spring had sprung a few weeks ago. The daffodils were starting to flower and the magnolias were in bloom, although one pink magnolia had its blossoms burnt by the recent night frosts. There was evidence of a lot of plant damage from frost and frost burn.

Castle from Courtyar

 The yucca-like palms didn't survive the -15C temps of the past winter and a number had to be cut down, and a lovely Mimosa and Chilean Myrtle have also been damaged beyond resurrection. The Mimosa is normally ablaze with yellow blossom at this time, in-keeping with its International Women's Day symbolism - and this year the entire tree is deadwood. The Myrtle might survive but it seems unlikely, as only a few branches are in leaf.

The Castle from the Courtyard

It was lovely to walk around the garden with the groups of visitors and Chris Tull the extremely knowledgeable Head Gardener kept everyone entertained and informed in each of the five tours he conducted. People really enjoy having the guided tour as it's the only time it happens. The gardens are open from March - October but not with guided tours. The Lismore Castle Arts gallery is also open during the summer and this year these artists will be exhibiting.

Part of the draw of Devonshire Day is the Cream Tea served in the famed Pugin Room or Ballroom (the former Chapel) while Immrama Chairman Bernard Leddy and Immrama President Peter Dowd give very informative talks on the Castle's history in the context of the history of Lismore, which is pretty amazing as it encompasses the Book of Lismore, an illuminated manuscript from the 15th Century in Irish which documents the travels of Marco Polo. Another famed travel link to Lismore, along with the more contemporary Dervla Murphy link!

First group enjoying the noon sun

Carlisle Tower Lismore Castle

View from Courtyard

Chris standing on the Ice House grid. Gallery in Tower

Chris Tull, the aforementioned Head Gardener, gives a talk on the Castle and the Gardens, with their links to Joseph Paxton (the Greenhouse) and the Devonshire's links to the Kennedy clan and Fred Astaire. (A sister of President Kennedy's should have been the Duchess of Devonshire but she and her husband - the Duke-in-waiting - were killed in separate aviation accidents during and after WW11). The incumbent Duke's mother was one of the famous Mitford sisters - Deborah, the Dowager Duchess, who was the least controversial of the Mitfords - and recent visitors to the Castle included Prince Charles and his now-wife Camilla Parker-Bowles, who came here in 2004. Our sons were then working as butlers in the castle for summer jobs and were serving them their dinner - surely something for them to dine out on but they're not fazed by fame at all - they leave those bragging rights to their mother!

I'm on duty as the health and safety first aider but thankfully I have never had any problems, other than the odd fall during bad weather when the ground becomes slippy underfoot. Today was uneventful but I still have to be there to accompany the groups on their walkabout, just in case. The Farmers' Market reopened for the season today and we can enjoy this every Sunday until October.

Camellia

All in all it was a great day; I am at home now with aching legs from all the walking around the uneven terrain and garden steps, writing this up and sharing some of the photos with you. I hope you enjoy them and that they give an idea of the lovely day we had. Compared to last year the garden was further on but compared to the previous year it was still very late.

Carlisle Tower from Lower Gardens

As we have seen in the tragedy of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, we mess with nature at our peril and we have to bow to the strength of the forces of nature. When they are unleashed we are pretty powerless to do anything, and it was heartening to hear Chris in his role as head gardener of the castle extol the virtues of symbiosis with nature, working with rather than against it in being as organic as possible, crop diversity and selection of indigenous and not exotic plants, and not using chemicals at all as there are none without consequences. The results are seen in the wonderful working kitchen gardens that are ready for planting now, to provide the house and guests with fresh produce throughout the season.

Arbutus tree planted by Pres. Mary Robinson 1991

Chris and Antony Gormley sculpture

Crest over entrance "God's Providence Our Inheritance 1615 "

An Irish Man (1907) Unknown Artist

"Up and Over" Irish Artist

Me with Mary Roche and family

The Yellow Jackets - me with Jan and the boys!

Pugin Chandelier in Dining Room - Note D for Devonshire

Joseph Paxton greenhouse

Accurate Sundial

Devonshire Day 2010 in Lismore Castle - can Spring be this far behind?

Last year I posted about Devonshire Day 2009 and had some wonderful photos of the spring gardens in Lismore Castle. This year couldn't have been a greater contrast. If you link back to the 2009 post you'll see what I mean - we had a beautiful day for the garden tours and the gardens were a blaze of spring colour with daffodils and crocuses, magnolia, camellia and rhododendrons in full bloom. By contrast, this year was a monochrome of dull khaki green/brown all over the gardens, a legacy of the "Big Freeze" of the winter of 2009/10. We are still reeling from the impact of the cold, in that the gardens of Ireland (and I'm sure further afield) are about a month behind their normal growth, and many plants will have been killed by the sub-zero temperatures that are so unusual for our normally temperate climate.

The Gulf Stream seems to have abandoned us this past winter and the coldest temperatures on record were reached, practically tropical by some of your standards - like minus 15 degrees Centigrade in some places - but this was more than enough to wreak havoc with our sub-tropical palms and grasses.

In our own garden a nice palm in a pot has been destroyed, along with a couple of palms that can survive minus 5 degrees Centigrade but won't make it through the summer. Our banana plants may well make it as they are supposed to withstand cold (in the roots anyway, as the foliage and stalks die off every year at the first frost and it's lovely to see them grow as the summer kicks in - even if it's only nominal like 2009 "summer" - the monsoon rains certainly encouraged the banana to grow even if nothing that should have grown didn't - like our apples!)

So I will show you some of the photos of Devonshire Day - gardens, farmers' market, Pugin Room, the Yellow Jackets, Shayne & Jany and Sofia, and Paxton's greenhouse/vinery and you can see for yourself the difference between last year and now. The magnolia buds are out but tightly closed, and the camellias are likewise. No daffodils are yet open - not sure what the Welsh kids did on March 1st as on St. David's Day everyone is usually festooned in leeks and daffodils, as were our kids when we lived near Swansea over 20 years ago. This year must have been the year of the Leek!

For those new to this blog - Devonshire Day is an annual fundraiser for the Immrama Festival of Travel Writing to be held in Lismore in mid-June. The Pugin Room of Lismore Castle is the venue for a lovely Devonshire Cream Tea served up by the butlers of the owner, the Duke of Devonshire (who lives at his main gaff at Chatsworth in Derbyshire but whose son William, Lord Burlington, is now the main man in Lismore Castle. They have another place at Bolton Abbey.)

There are five groups of about sixty people who come for the tea and a guided tour of the spring gardens, hosted by the head gardener, Chris Tull. Chris is a mine of information on all things horticultural and arboreal, and he gives a talk on the history of the Pugin Room and the gardens with the Joseph Paxton greenhouse in the context of the castle today where it is an income-generating posh B&B - if you have to ask how much, you probably can't afford to stay here - but for those who ask, it's about €30-35,000 for a week for a party of 12. So now you know - get booking! There are talks on the history of Lismore and the Castle also from Bernard Leddy, the current Mayor of Lismore who's also the Chairman of Immrama, and Peter Dowd, the President of Immrama, both of whom have a store of knowledge of local history and the captive audience are generally captivated and enthralled by the wealth of information they get while they enjoy their cuppa and cream scones.

As my role in the proceedings is to don a Hi-Viz jacket and wield a First-Aid kit, and be the Health & Safety person who accompanies the groups on their walkabout, ready to minister to any who fall by the wayside, I get a lot of photo opportunities and also chat to a lot of people who come from amazingly far and wide for the day, which by now has attained notoriety and fame. Every session (at roughly hourly intervals) except the first (too early for some!) was fully booked and a number of punters were turned away disappointed as the castle couldn't accommodate more than around sixty per group. Hubby Jan as Immrama administrator is one of the main organisers of the event and does duty (also tastefully clad in yellow) at the gate.

The day marked the inaugural day of the Lismore Farmers' Market which will run each Sunday until November. It is held in the Castle Avenue before the Riding House, a spectacular venue for a Farmers' Market as it is really beautiful and has a very French feel to it, and the variety of stalls increases every year, from Ballycotton Fish to handcrafted cards and soaps to home-cooked produce, baked and jammed and grilled - delicious fast food in the Naked Lunch van which does Spicy Lamb burgers to die for - and terrific plants and shrubs from the gardening stalls. Many of these stall-holders do the rounds of the markets and can be found in Dungarvan Square on Thursdays, but Lismore can't be beaten for location!

Despite the late spring's impact on the gardens, the feedback from the day from the punters was incredibly positive; most people were delighted to have tea in the Pugin Room which is normally closed to the public, and the guided tours are beloved of the gardeners among the visitors. There are numerous sculptures in the gardens including one of Antony Gormley's ubiquitous body sculptures of himself.

The ticket includes entry to the Lismore Heritage Centre which houses the Robert Boyle Museum Room, he of Boyle's Law fame (no I don't quite get it but I gather he's called the Father of Modern Chemistry for it) and he has huge castle links as it was the Boyle-Cavendish union that resulted in the castle being in the Devonshire estate.

Another point of interest this year was the link with the Hollywood blockbuster "The Duchess" with Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes, about the life of Georgiana Spencer (yes, an ancestor of Lady Di Spencer - what convoluted webs the aristocracy weave!) who was a former Duchess of Devonshire, an inveterate gambler and unhappily married woman who bore more than a passing resemblance in beauty and lifestyle to her illustrious descendant.) Also, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey for ITV was filmed in the Castle; all the scenes of the Abbey were filmed here, and locals have great fun identifying the places shown and the extras from the town!

I hope I've given a sense of the day - even though I wrote about it last year, this is so different it warranted a post of its own. The castle features in a lot of the events of the town, as the owners are keen to be involved in the area and make it available as a community resource quite often, as they do for Immrama, and for various charity gigs, like the annual fashion show for West Waterford Hospice, and a classical music concert for the local primary school to be held in April. The launch of Immrama has been held here, as was the launch of the Waterford Festival of Food, and an annual Carol Concert series is held every December, another charity event.

The gardens and Castle Arts gallery are open until October and the main exhibition in the Gallery will be opening in April or May. I see Sotheby's Irish Sale Preview will happen again this year as it's a great chance to view some classy art in a wonderful setting, even if it'll never grace my own walls - I can enjoy the visit and hope the works will end up in an Irish gallery for everyone's enjoyment.

Devonshire Day in Lismore Castle

Yesterday we had a lovely day in Lismore Castle. It was a fundraiser for the annual Immrama Festival of Travel Writing which will be held in June and this was the 6th Devonshire Day, as this day is called. It is so called as the Castle is the Irish seat of the Dukeof Devonshire, and the idea has evolved into an annual day out on the Sunday nearest to St. Patrick's Day, which falls tomorrow.

The Avenue from the riding house looking towards the main gate and courtyard



The Castle is not normally open to the public, as the son of the present Duke, Lord Burlington, and his wife, spends quite a lot of time in Lismore, and as the castle is an upmarket guest house for well-heeled guests (those who can spare about €35,000 for a week's full-board with the butlers on hand for a party of 12!) it is also not practical to have tourists tramping about the rooms. So this day is an opportunity to see a little of the interior and people travel from far and wide to enjoy the day.

Enjoying the tea during the talk

The visitors have Devonshire Cream Tea in the Ballroom, which was formerly a chapel and is known as the "Pugin Room" as it was designed by Augustus Pugin, an architect and designer who also designed the Houses of Parliament in Westminister. A number of church and big house interiors have his signature wood panelling and furnishings. It is now used as a room for events like concerts, wedding receptions occasionally, and banqueting hall for large parties of houseguests. It has a marble fireplace which was originally built by Pugin for the Crystal Palace exhibition in London in 1851 and brought here after that was dissembled, with the addition of "Céad Mille (sic) Fáilte" written across the top (this means 100,000 welcomes in Irish.)

Various views of the castle from the courtyard

When Prince Charles and his then fiancée Camilla came to Lismore a few years back for the 60th birthday bash of his pal the current duke who was then Lord Hartington. (The old Duke died some years later and Lord Hartington inherited the title. I suppose that means that Lord Burlington, his son, is technically the new Marquis of Hartington, but he is still using the same title.) Charles and Camilla really chilled out on their visit and did a handshaking walkabout after Sunday service in the Cathedral, with minimal security on hand. He is seen as either a harmless tree-hugger or vilified for his marital infidelity to Diana, but he was accepted in Lismore as another visitor to the castle, without much fuss being made of either of them.

The Duke's main home is Chatsworth in Derbyshire, which is one of the great houses of England and a major tourist attraction, much more open to the public than Lismore Castle. Bolton Abbey is another of their houses, and I have never been to either place, but my son played cricket with the Lismore Cricket Team when they went to Bolton Abbey play the Duke's 11 some years ago, and had a chance to see both houses. Our sons have had summer jobs there as butlers over their student years as well, and were working there for the royal visit. They are extremely discreet so I never get any gossip from them, no matter how much I fish!

Enough potted history for now. Yesterday's event was practically fully booked, as the format was five groups of 60 max came at 80 minute intervals. They arrived via the Castle Avenue to the Courtyard and went to the Ballroom, where they had their tea, surrounded by the splendour of the stained glass windows and the Pugin-designed chandelier and wall lights.

During the tea there were talks on the history of the Castle and Lismore, the "Big houses" along the River Blackwater, and the Castle Gardens from various local historians and the Head Gardener. These informative talks put a context on the day, and after tea they got a guided tour of the spring gardens from the wife of the Head Gardener, as he was out of action from a (work-related) foot injury.

So that was the pattern of the day. I am involved in the festival from the health and safety angle and attend all the events as a First Aid person. This entailed accompanying each group around the gardens, tastefully clad in a yellow Hi-Viz jacket and armed with a medical kit! Luckily my skills weren't called on yesterday and I had a chance to take lots of photos and learn about the wonderful plants, shrubs and trees, and the garden's architecture, which has the remnants of a 19th century Joseph Paxton greenhouse. Paxton designed the above mentioned Crystal Palace in London for the Exhibition in 1851 and he was the head gardener of Chatsworth but was also responsible for how Lismore Castle looks today, as he re-designed it to its current look. There are a number if sculptures in the gardens, which are nice to come upon as you go around. There is a typical Anthony Gormley bronze body cast - his own as is his signature - and that is in the middle of an ancient yew walk in the photo.

His most famous work is The Angel of the North in Newcastle-on-Tyne in England, visible for miles around. The magnolias are magnificent right now and you can see their splendour in the photo, a highlight of the spring garden, along with rhododendrons and azaleas.

I hope you like the photos and links and if you get a chance to come to Lismore you can visit the gardens from tomorrow until October when they will be open daily, minus the guided tour - you can get a brochure with identifiers for the trees and shrubs and history - and the Castle Arts Gallery which is in the renovated West Wing and has a different contemporary exhibition every summer. If you like weird and wonderful art - in a multitude of media from sculpture to video installations to technology installations - in a lovely setting then this one's for you!

Sotheby's have had a preview of their Irish Art sales here for the past few years as well, which gives a nice opportunity to see some amazing artworks. The annual exhibitions are not all to my taste, but then I am a traditionalist at heart and love a good Old Master. There was a show two years ago when they juxtaposed the old and the new, with a private Florida-owned collection of very contemporary stuff out in old stables and coalsheds that led to a lot of bewildered head-scratching, and in the Gallery there were lovely works by Van Eyck, Gainsborough, and other famous painters. Each owner selected the works of the other for the exhibition, an odd fusion to say the least!

Yesterday's visitors were very enthusiastic about the whole experience and then they went to the Heritage Centre as part of the day's package. The sun shone and there was spring warmth in the air, and Farmer's Market was in full swing in the Castle Avenue,

so the town was buzzing.

Immrama will have its launch in the Gallery in a month or two, so watch this space!

(If you want to see more photos I have uploaded them to a Picasa slideshow on the sidebar of this blogpost, right at the top right at present. Click on these photos to see them full-screen size, if you want the detail.)

The Stained Glass window overlooking the Ballroom with the Pugin Chandelier in the foreground

The Stained Glass window over the Minstrel's Gallery, with St. Patrick on the Right and (I think) St. George on the Left

Some of the sculpture in the Lower Garden

The yew walk with the Gormley figure visible on the right half-way down

The Pugin marble fireplace

The misspelt Irish greeting

The castle from the Lower Gardens

The Magnolias in full bloom in the Lower Garden with the Riding House in the background. This straddles the Avenue and links the upper and lower gardens