GARDENS: Boulders, trains, a castle, a mysterious spiral mound and copses of aspen and oak – Oakfield Park is a magical wonder
MY INNER PERFECTIONIST – who doesn’t get out much – is in seventh heaven at Oakfield Park in Donegal. Here, in the couple of hectares around the substantial, Italianate, 18th-century deanery, there are some of the best-groomed gardens in Ireland, with razor-sharp edges, clipped yew and box, and stripy lawns that look as if they were woven in some celestial lawn factory and then cast over the sloping and gently billowing ground.
This intense order is concentrated around the house; in the rest of the 42 hectares, nature is given a freer rein – much to the approval of the birds, otters, hares and other wildlife that has moved in here.
Oakfield Park, just outside Raphoe, is the home of well-known businessman and broadcaster sir Gerry Robinson and his wife, Heather. It is he, incidentally, who likes things as neat as a new pin, while she admits to a fondness for a more untamed look, where primroses and nettles have their way in rough verges. On everything else they seem to agree, which makes it remarkably relaxing to go around the garden with them – a change from some of the marital scuffles I’ve witnessed in my years of professional garden visiting.
The property wasn’t always so perfect. The couple bought it in 1996, and over the centuries it had been added to in a piecemeal manner. The gardens (now looked after by head gardener Mark McConnellogue) had virtually disappeared. The walled garden, now a diverse place of repose, charm and productivity, had little more than a pear and a plum tree. Elsewhere, the eponymous oaks had– except for a couple – been harvested for wood in the middle of the 20th century.
Some fine trees still remained, among them a massive horse chestnut known as the 12 Apostles (because of its 12 limbs), and a Spanish chestnut, reputed to be as old as the Battle of the Boyne.
The Robinsons embarked on a complete restoration, which took several years. Belfast-based architects and garden designers AE Wright undertook the entire project, with the result that the Georgian house, restored to its original Palladian lines, is now beautifully ensconced in its garden and parkland, and these, in turn, blend seamlessly with the surrounding, hilly landscape. The grounds pay homage, in a series of painterly vistas, to the staunch-looking, five-bay building perched on the rise; to the distant mound of Croaghan Hill; and to the recently built follies, including a diminutive castle and a temple – both with their own lakes. In its turn, the house nods in acknowledgment to the pleasing prospects arranged within its field of view. Capability Brown or Humphry Repton, the great 18th-century landscape designers, would have seen much to admire.
I’m not sure what they would have thought of the miniature train that runs along four kilometres of track in the lower half of the gardens. But I hope they would have been as thrilled as I am at this piece of unmitigated, good fun. The Difflin Lake Railway boasts a number of child-sized carriages, and two engines: one diesel and one steam, with the latter running only on special Sundays (enthusiasts can find the dates and all the specs on the website, below). The little train is a blast to travel in, making all the right big-train noises and movements: rumbling and screeching, and lurching from side to side. A horn sounds urgently each time it crosses the old coach road to Strabane, which bisects the track’s circuitous route. The journey passes through a varied landscape: chugging by boulders rimmed with red valerian (just as you would find along a real, grown-up railway line!), winding through willow copses and rushing through rushes that whip against the window. It skirts around a one-and-half hectare lake (with castle); coils around a mysterious sprial mound; and loops past a circle of Irish oaks and aspen.
And everywhere there are trees, trees and more trees. The Robinsons have planted more than 40,000, including oaks in plenty, which restores meaning to the Oakfield name. “We’ve been trying to become rather special for oaks,” says Gerry. “We’ve got something like 160 varieties. Most are in the nursery now, but they are going out slowly as they get big enough.”
The lower garden area – around 20 hectares – had been farmed pasture, much of it marshy, when the Robinsons acquired it around 10 years ago. Now, it is a comprehensive and maturing landscape.
Today, the whole Oakfield Park property forms a new and well-knit demesne. But, according to Heather, its development was completely organic: “It was the kind of thing that grew. We never really intended it. We started with the house, wanted to get the garden in shape and we kind of got carried away.” And what a good thing they did – as it gives this country a much-needed new and beautiful garden and landscape.
Oakfield Park
Raphoe, Co Donegal, tel: 074-9173068, oakfieldpark.com. It opens Wednesday to Sunday (noon-6pm) during July and August, and on Irish and UK bank holiday Mondays, August 1st and August 29th.
Train rides on Saturdays and Sundays. Admission to garden, €3-5; train rides, €2-3; family tickets available