More than 120 trees, many of them of rare, heritage and specimen varieties, in the National Botanic Gardens in Kilmacurragh, Co Wicklow were felled during Storm Darragh this weekend.
“The damage to the garden is horrendous,” said head gardener Seamus O’Brien. “It looks like a garden of broken sticks. It is like Hiroshima.”
Specimen trees, flowers and shrubs have been nurtured at Kilmacurragh for hundreds of years, with the last 21 hectares of the estate becoming part of the National Botanic Gardens in 1996.
Among the most prized heritage trees was a silver fir transported as a sapling by horse and cart from Samuel Hayes’ Avondale Estate near Rathdrum in 1790.
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“It was damaged in the night of the big wind, the Oíche na Gaoithe Móire,” said Mr O’Brien, referring to a powerful windstorm that swept across Britain and Ireland in January 1839, bringing down trees and houses.
“It was damaged again in Storm Darragh but this time it will have to be taken out. It is like losing an old family member.”
Mr O’Brien said another “beautiful young tree”, a peumus boldas from Chile which was planted in 1987, was flattened by a falling Chinese fir – itself another specimen tree. “I live here on the estate and on Saturday in the early hours the storm was terrible and you could hear the trees cracking and falling in the dark,” he added.
He said many trees were also felled along the main entrance route, meaning “the crews coming tomorrow will have to cut their way in”.
“We are closed. We said until Wednesday on social medial but it will be longer than that. We will be weeks before we get it cleared up and can make an assessment of what to do then.”
In nearby Ashford, the Mount Usher Gardens are also closed until further notice as staff count the number of fallen trees. A spokeswoman said contractors would arrive on Monday to begin the clear up.
At Powerscourt House, a small number of trees fell alongside the avenue but not across the road. A spokesman said the damage had not been as bad as that caused by previous storms.
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