Mount Stewart House and Gardens
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Mount Stewart
Mount Stewart has officially opened following an extensive restoration project. Over £7 million has been
spent on giving the world famous National Trust property a new lease of life – with new rooms and
hidden treasures set to be revealed.
Tucked away along the shores of Strangford Lough, Mount Stewart stately home boasts one of the top ten gardens in the world, and now visitors will also be treated to
a transformed house that includes new rooms on show as well as the opportunity to see nationally and internationally significant portraits, silver collections and other
family treasures.
The three year £7.5 million programme to restore Mount Stewart included essential repairs and improvements to the structure and services of this precious house. Its
treasures were also carefully repaired alongside important research carried out to bring back to life this family home back to its former glory.
For the first time four brand new, never before seen rooms will be accessible to the public. All existing rooms within the house will also be re-presented and
interpreted, with textiles, carpets and curtains. There will be new collections featuring paintings and artefacts on show for the first time and there will be one of the
most significant silver displays in the Trust’s care exhibited.
Experts and specialists from across the UK and Ireland have worked tirelessly to bring this Restoration Project to completion and the Londonderry family have been
deeply involved with the full Restoration project.
The attention to detail in bringing together items that are of particular significance and relevance to the home and family has ensured that the house now fully
interconnects with the Londonderry family and tells their story. Mount Stewart now provides the visitor with a sensory experience both indoors and outdoors. The
rooms are alive with colours, collections and conversations – with the house echoing to the sounds of clocks ticking and the gardens filled with delightful aromas and
bird song.
Mount Stewart is one of the most inspiring and unusual gardens in the National Trust's ownership. The garden reflects a rich tapestry of design and great planting
artistry that was the hallmark of Edith, Lady Londonderry. The mild climate of Strangford Lough allows astonishing levels of planting experimentation. The formal
areas exude a strong Mediterranean feel and resemble an Italian villa landscape; the wooded areas support a range of plants from all corners of the world, ensuring
something to see whatever the season.
With a story dating back hundreds of years, the landscape will now extend beyond the house and garden on the shores of Strangford Lough to include the surrounding
1,000 acres of rolling parkland and woodland which make up the demesne. In time, visitors will be able to explore extensive woodland, previously unseen walled
gardens, farmland and a range of historic monuments and buildings.
Combined with a newly restored house and one of the top gardens in the world – in years to come this will create a destination which offers a fascinating insight in to
the stories of the Stewart family.
The Trust has already opened up areas of the previously unseen Walled Garden and Dairy and visitors will soon be able to access the full demesne.
Once the powerhouse of the demesne, the Walled Garden provided plants, raised mainly from seed, supplied by plant collectors from around the World, and produced
a wide variety of fruit and vegetables to serve the house and feed the estate staff.
A significant project in itself, restoring the Walled Garden in years ahead will incorporate the return of an extensive collection of the best scented period roses. In the
open quarters of the orchard there are plans to plant a selection of fruit trees. Over the longer term Mount Stewart will once again grow soft fruit in the restored
Vineries and Peach Houses.
The Vinery at Mount Stewart is the only significant historic glasshouse left in the demesne which is home to the ancient, ‘White Syrian’ vine, (the oldest vine in Ireland
and the second oldest in the UK, planted one year after the Hampton Court Vine, which dates back to 1768).
Summary of new rooms that will be opened in April 2015:
Silver Room:
This is a new room converted from the old Gun Room off the Central Hall, styled on a traditional Plate Room where the Butler kept all the silver, silver gilt, and plated
items in safe storage, ready for setting out around the house or for use in the Dining Room. It will be used to display the excellent collection of Mount Stewart silver,
and other precious items.
TV Room:
This room is off the Entrance Hall and has been converted into a reception room to introduce visitors to Mount Stewart, home of the Stewart family. There will be a
chance to find out more about key members of the family, in particular Charles and Edith Londonderry and their daughter Mairi, who created the gardens and
transformed the house in the 20th century.
Naples and Florence
These are two bedrooms that have not been opened to the public before. They are simply decorated in bold colours chosen by Lady Mairi in the 1960s.
Nursery Rooms
During the course of the summer more rooms will be opened, including the nursery rooms. These rooms date to the childhood of Lady Mairi, who was born in
1921. They were also used by her two daughters, Ladies Rose and Elizabeth. The large nursery, called Paris, looks out faces over the gardens and is where the children
had lessons, read and played, and where they had their meals, served by the Footmen. The nanny slept in an adjacent room, Lyons, and the girls slept in a room called
Calais.
Mount Stewart Restoration – Building work facts and figures
Since 2011 the Project so far we have used:
112,000+ Nails
78,000+ Screws
13,120 meters or just over 13 kilometres of Adhesive Tape (that’s 8 miles
and 268 yards)
96 meters of Protective Sheeting (that’s 105 yards)
210 meters of Plastazote (that’s 230 yards)
58 Castors
1678 Washers
100 meters of Sandpaper (that’s 109 yards)
90 meters of Correx Board (that’s 98 yards)
12.5 meters of Perspex (that’s 14 yards)
2000 meters or 2 kilometres of Jiffy Foam (that’s 1 mile and 427 yards)
2800 meters or 2.8 kilometres of Bubble wrap (that’s 1 mile and 1302 yards)
350 meters of Tyveck (that’s 383 yards)
Mount Stewart – Interview opportunities – expert advice
Frances Bailey, Curator, National Trust, Northern Ireland
A unique insight into two generations
Frances Bailey has just celebrated 25 years in her role as Curator with the National Trust,
Northern Ireland. Her knowledge of the National Trust collections, historic landscapes,
houses and gardens across Northern Ireland is outstanding and clearly demonstrates why she
has played such a pivotal role in the delivery of the £7.5m Restoration Project at Mount
Stewart, County Down.
She has a real passion and eye for detail, advising on everything from textiles and furniture to
silver and paintings.
Frances has had the pleasure of working closely with two generations of the Stewart family giving her a unique insight to the stories that made Mount Stewart a family home.
As with many major restoration projects there have been both highlights and lowlights along the way. Frances’s highlights have included the redecoration and representation of the Central Hall, the re-framing of George Stubbs’ famous painting “Hambletonian, Rubbing Down” and the display of significant paintings and objects
on loan from the Marquess of Londonderry, whose grandfather grew up at Mount Stewart.
Two of her favourite items in the house include Emily Castlereagh’s Toilet Box which will be on show in the new Silver Room and the magnificent Congress of Vienna
Desk, both dating to c 1810.
In her role as Regional Curator, Frances will continue to be closely involved with Mount Stewart, ensuring that the history of this much loved family home is
maintained, shared and enjoyed for many years to come.
Speaking about the restoration project, Frances said, “This has been one of the most exciting projects I have worked on during my 25 years with the National Trust.
To see the re-presentation of family rooms, the return of unique collections to their original home and the structure and services within the house upgraded to the 21 st
century has been a truly extraordinary and emotional experience - one I will treasure for years to come.”
Mount Stewart – Interview opportunities – expert advice
Neil Porteous, Head of Gardens, Mount Stewart,
(responsible for all NI gardens)
It’s the fairies making them grow
It’s an exciting year for Mount Stewart as the world famous house is restored to its former glory.
However, an important part of the same project has been to rejuvenate the gardens (rated as
amongst the top ten in the world) and reconnect them with the house.
Edith, wife of the 7th Marquess (3 December 1878 – 23 April 1959), with her extraordinary eye for
colour and form is best remembered as the inspired creator of Mount Stewart’s garden. Edith and
Charles transformed Mount Stewart from a damp holiday house into their family home, and raised
their children here.
By its very nature, a garden continually evolves, and head gardeners try to honour the spirit and ideas of the gardens’ creators. At Mount Stewart, Head Gardener Neil
Porteous fuses the planting and colours he knows the family likes with historical replication.
Mount Stewart employs 8 full-time gardeners today, but they are ably assisted by some 35 long-term volunteers, some 15 work placements, 4 full-time students and
apprentices and a host of visiting foreign horticultural students from the rest of Europe. Mount Stewart is one of the most visited gardens in Ireland and contributes
hugely to the local Northern Ireland economy.
Speaking about staying true to Edith, Lady Londonderry’s vision Neil says:
“Edith used to say the reason everything grows so well was because she hadn’t cut any fairy trees down, and it’s the sidhe, the fairies, making things grow.”
“She was so prolific. She loved anything flamboyant and new, and sponsored every plant-hunter of her day to bring back seed to Mount Stewart. If she didn’t like something, it’d all come out the
next season and something else would be brought in. She gave the gardens to the Trust in 1955, but it’s very easy for us here, because we never got the idea that we should stop the clock in 1959
when she died. She would have hated that.”
Mount Stewart Garden – Top Ten Facts
Allegory
The garden at Mount Stewart can be divided into two; The Formal Gardens, comprising some 10 acres
around the house and a 60 acre Pleasure Ground, mainly woodland garden, wrapped around a 4 acre
lake. In parts of the Formal Garden, Lady Londonderry employed a rich allegorical theme; that of
herself as Circe the Sorceress, the seductive witch Goddess who ensnared half of Odysseus’s crew.
Nowhere else employed such a personal device within the garden.
Design
Most rich garden owners would have employed a well-known garden architect, but Lady Londonderry
wanted to do everything herself. She was always open about her influences within the garden, but
imbued each element of the design and layout with herself. It is a feminine garden, richly imaginative
and intensely personal.
Gaelic Mythology
Lady Londonderry considered herself a Scot. Brought up at Dunrobin Castle, Sutherland. The Scots
originally migrated to Scotland from Ulster and their myths and legends are the same, but with some
local variations. Edith alluded to Gaelic mythology in several parts of her design, especially The
Shamrock Garden and Tir n’an Og – The Land of the Ever Young, the family burial
ground. In collaboration with the artist Edmund Brock, Lady Londonderry wrote an
illustrated children’s story, ‘The Magic Ink Pot’ about the mythical Tuatha de Danann
– The Children of The Goddess and their adventures against the monstrous
Formorians. There is a collaborative children’s story designed by Edmund Brock and
Lady Londonderry in topiary, running on top of a Shamrock-shaped hedge describing
a disastrous hunt for the White Stag which takes the souls of the departed to Tir n’an
Og. Where else would you find that in a garden!
The Women’s Legion
In 1915, when it was clear World War I was not going to be’ over by Christmas’, Lady
Londonderry founded the Women’s Legion; a voluntary organisation dedicated to
giving women a role in Britain’s war effort. Lady Londonderry was a committed
suffragist, dedicated to giving women the vote and allowing them the liberty of jobs
and a career that only men at that time enjoyed. The Women’s Legion proved vital to
Britain’s survival and contributed to the Allies victory in 1918. She gave the legion the
emblem of a Tudor Rose in her Stewart family colours of blue and white and this
important achievement is commemorated in the Mairi Garden at Mount Stewart.
Micro-climate
The Ards Peninsular is very narrow and Mount Stewart lies in a natural amphitheatre inclined to the
South-West and sheltered from strong winds by belts of trees. The water in both the Irish Sea and
Strangford Lough is warmed by the Gulf Stream. At 55 0 North, Mount Stewart is at the same latitude
as Denmark or Lithuania, but the warmer water ensures that cold weather is mitigated and so Mount
Stewart can grow a range of plants not usually encountered outside in the British Isles.
Kingdom-Ward Collection
In her day, Lady Londonderry discovered the microclimate at Mount Stewart and immediately began
planting plants from the more sub-tropical parts of the world; the Mediterranean, North and South
Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Chile and Mexico, Burma, India and China. Mount Stewart soon
acquired a reputation for the weird and the wonderful all aided by the benign climate and a very fine
Head Gardener, Thomas Bolas. Mount Stewart has a unique collection of over 100 plants raised from
a collection by Frank Kingdom-Ward in 1935 from Burma, (Myanmar), of Rhododendron magnificum.
Southern Hemisphere plants
In particular, Mount Stewart has a very fine collection of Southern Hemisphere plants, from the
sacred Kauri Pine of the Maori in New Zealand to the Chilean Hazel, beloved of the Mapuche
Indians of Southern Chile. The maritime conditions; never very cold in the winter and never very hot
in the summer is ideal for these plants, many of which come from cloud forest conditions.
Plant collectors
Lady Londonderry sponsored nearly every Plant Collector of her day, including George Forrest,
Joseph Rock and Frank Kingdon-Ward in Asia and Clarence Elliott and Harold Comber in South
America. In this tradition we have acquired the entirety of Peter and Ken Cox’s collections of the
Maddenia section of Rhododendron. These were loved by Lady Londonderry because they were often
highly scented in both leaf and flower. The garden has over 100 species and 25 hybrids, 80% of which
are entirely epiphytic, growing on logs and tree stumps.
New Developments
No garden can afford to stand still. This year our visitors will see a new Formorian statue, by the local artist Terry Dorian, in galvanized steel, which will be entwined to
form a piece of topiary with Irish Yew in the Shamrock Garden. There is a new Fernery with an exotic collection of ferns and tree ferns, many from the Southern
Hemisphere. There is a new Himalayan Walk from the Fernery up Rhododendron Hill where visitors will see scented Maddenia collection and a wide range of other
epiphytic plants.
Mount Stewart Library
Visitors to Mount Stewart will also be able to enjoy access to the Londonderry family library, which has
been secured by the National Trust.
The important library at Mount Stewart will remain in its historic home thanks to the National Trust which
secured almost £100,000 in funding to purchase the important collection from the estate of the late Lady Mairi
Bury.
Collected by various members of the Londonderry family for over two centuries, the library gives a unique insight
into the reading and book-buying habits of a powerful and influential family from the eighteenth to the twentieth
century.
It is possible through the books to trace the history of this famous house and its owners including Edith,
Marchioness of Londonderry, who created the famous gardens.
The library contains thousands of books on a wide range of subjects, ranging from Lady Londonderry’s truly
magnificent collection of Irish books and her many books on gardening, architecture, archaeology and mythology
which clearly relate to the creation of the inspirational garden you can see today at
Mount Stewart.
As part of the long term plan for the library, the National Trust plans to fully catalogue
the collection, placing the information online, and to explain and interpret the collection
through regular exhibitions at the house.
The funding for the library collection was secured through a range of donations
including The Royal Oak Foundation, The B.H. Breslauer Foundation, Northern Ireland
Museums Council, Friends of the National Libraries, Doreen Burns, Terence and Di
Kyle.
‘Hambletonian, Rubbing down’ – Stubb’s Masterpiece Reframed
One of Northern Ireland’s most treasured thoroughbreds is back
where he belongs, after the National Trust reframed and rehung
‘Hambletonian’ as part of the £7.5m restoration project at Mount
Stewart.
The envy of any gallery in the world
Hambletonian, was one of best thoroughbred racehorses of the late 18th century, having won
all of his race starts, except one. Stubbs was inspired to paint him after a close race at
Newmarket in 1799.
The priceless artwork was generously gifted to the Trust by the late Lady Mairi Bury and is
regarded by experts as the most significant painting within the Trust’s local collection.
The National Trust has given Stubb’s ‘Hambletonian, Rubbing Down’ a brand new frame, more
befitting this great masterpiece. Exhibited first at the Royal Academy, London in 1800, Sir
Henry Vane-Tempest’s commissioned the magnificent study which is now considered as
perhaps Stubbs’s greatest achievement.
Jon Kerr, National Trust manager at Mount Stewart said: “Hambletonian is one of those iconic features of Mount Stewart, and one that visitors love to see. The simple
painted frame which visitors may have been familiar with has now been replaced with a more traditional gilt frame which is more appropriate for a painting of such
national significance. We are lucky that Northern Ireland is home to such a stunning piece of art that would be the envy of any gallery in the world.”