St. Fiachra’s Garden

As Previously mentioned another area within the Nation stud which is worth a visit is the St. Fiachra gardens. In 1999 the Irish National Stud created a commemorative garden to St Fiachra to celebrate the Millennium. It was designed by Professor Martin Hallinan, an award-winning landscape architect.

The gardens were officially opened by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, in June 1999. Saint Fiachra, the Patron Saint of Gardeners, whom is said to be a descendent of the high kings of Ireland died in France in 670ad. The entrance to the garden is via an underground stone passage, taking the visitor beneath the earth into the inner garden, another world of woodland and lakes, momentarily leaving behind the pastures and horses of the Stud Farm.

The centre of the garden is dominated by a peninsula of fissured limestone surrounded by water upon which a stone hermitage has been created. Within this hermitage is found a second garden, deeper and finer, but still of rock. This subterranean garden is made of handcrafted Waterford Crystal rocks and plants such as ferns and orchids, which lights the darkness of the hermit’s cavern.

The garden reaches its centre with a fine sculpture of St. Fiachra himself. The woodland walks and aquatic plants as seen within a natural setting, and creating in effect a national water garden served by the natural springs of the Curragh.