PUBLICATIONS

Issue 42 - Summer 2007

A STEP TOO FAR?

Some gardens and histories landscapes are victims of their own success – as Sally O’Halloran suggests.

On a visit to Versailles recently I saw all my fears of the future use of historic landscapes come to life as I walked into the world renowned Orangery to see toilet blocks being fitted at either end.  As a gardener my first thoughts were of the frustration come winter of trying to re-organise the space to accommodate the hundreds of plants that are moved inside annually for frost protection i.e. the original reason the Orangery was designed…

As a manager I tried to imagine how the volume of visitors was so large that this could be justified. However as I walked through the rest of the gardens and saw cafes and shops in every available corner there appeared to be no limit to the volume of visitors that would be accommodated in Versailles.

However, this is not unique to Versailles. There are very few gardens which can afford to limit visitor numbers and remain financially sustainable. Is this the reason then why every time I visit a garden at the moment there is some form of event taking place that limits access and disrupts the visitor experience? Most recently in Castle Howard in Yorkshire, filming for the re-make of Brideshead Revisited meant my friends visiting from America went home with a collection of graphs of lights, cameras, trucks etc. .

With such a small population in Ireland ‘events’ are an everyday word for anyone working in historic properties. Concerts, markets, hot air balloon festivals, weddings, functions, the list is endless. But who decides what is acceptable and appropriate to the original concept of the landscape? A garden festival in Emo Court seems appropriate on paper but for the person on a once off visit do they really want to go home with graphs of generators, portaloos etc.

Finally the most financially rewarding use, which also seems to be the most popular in Ireland at the moment, is to build a golf course. Just when you think there already has to be a historic landscape ruined in every county in Ireland, Farnham estate in County Cavan will open a golf course in 2008.

To conclude, my question remains if you can justify something does that make it acceptable? Because people are stuck in traffic getting to work every morning, is it acceptable to build a motorway alongside one of the country’s most historically significant landscapes, the Hill of Tara? I am not convinced.

 

Sally O'Halloran, Horticultural foreperson of Kilkenny Castle Park, Emo Court and Heywood Gardens, is currently on a career break studying a Masters in Landscape Management at the University of Sheffield.

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