Houses and Gardens around Dublin and Central Ireland

Monday 6^th– Friday 10^th September 2021

Monday 13^th– Friday 17^th September 2021

Irish gardens come in all shapes and sizes and rarely is there a duff one.  Enthusiastic gardening, usually taking advantage of the mainly acidic soil and the abundant rainfall, has been happening in Ireland for centuries, from the formal 17^th century canal garden at Killruddery, through the great woodland gardens inspired by William Robinson in the 19^th century, to the gardens of designers and plantsmen and women being created and tended today, invariably filled with interesting planting and gardened with huge confidence, knowledge and great generosity.

In this five-day tour, based in the centre of Dublin, we will cover the whole spectrum of Irish gardening in and around Dublin, south into County Wicklow and west as far as Offaly. We will visit historic gardens, including some spectacular gardens inspired by William Robinson, perhaps the most influential of all Irish gardeners, a garden designed by Lutyens and contemporary gardens created by the best of today’s gardeners including Helen Dillon and the siblings, June and Jimi Blake. We are also visiting a number of houses, in two of them we are having lunch and the others we are visiting for their spectacular interiors and collection of paintings.

Palaces, Galleries and Churches of Rome

October 2021 – Date to be confirmed

So much has been written about Rome already that it is difficult to express anything of the magic of this city with any originality. From its foundation in 753BC, it has piled layer upon layer of building and culture. From Republican Rome, through the imperial era and on into the centuries of Papal rule, the city evolved constantly. Classical temples rose and fell, medieval architecture was succeeded by the glories of the Renaissance, represented triumphantly by the rebuilding of St Peter’s by Bramante and Michelangelo, and the decoration of the Vatican by Raphael. The Counter-Reformation was expressed by the Baroque architecture of Bernini and Borromini and, in painting, supremely by Caravaggio.

In this four-day tour we visit a wide range of buildings within walking distance of our centrally located hotel. We will see buildings rarely open, or seldom visited, to provide another view of Rome than the one the casual tourist sees.

For more information or to book these tours please email James or Karin on 01451 821804 or email james@border-lines.co.uk