Birr Castle Demesne

15th May dawned overcast and grey, really not ideal for a trip to the ever lovely Birr Castle in the company of M, S and A.  The lads and I are pretty frequent visitors to Birr, but it was the ladies' first trip. Birr Castle itself is a private residence, owned by the Parsons family for almost 400 years, but the general public can visit the Demesne (50 hectares worth, including formal gardens), the telescope, and the Historic Science Centre in the old stable block. (http://www.birrcastle.com for full details and prices)

I'll mix in a few older photos with the ones taken on the day, just to paint it in better weather light.  The trip started late which was a pity, it meant C1 had to forgo the science musuem part which he loves as we didn't make it back from the walk in time to visit.  Next time :)   We arrived after lunchtime, and while we had picnic stuff with us, the kids were in eating humour there and then.  At the entrance to the castle there's a tea shop, photos don't do it justice.  It's a cute place with tables outside under shelter for more hospitable weather and a good array of properly delicious cakes.  S, as you can see, discovered their bookshelf.

This is the entrance, where the shop is, it's small but lovely, I especially like the stuff aimed at kids - science and nature discovery kits for example.  C2 invested in a magnifying glass, having forgotten his own, more complicated one he usually uses for his mini beast safaris.  I've noticed that he tends to forget about bugs when in the company of charming young ladies though, so there weren't too many discoveries on this trip.   There's lots to catch the eye, including "Champion trees" (we figured one was a boxer, just fresh from it's latest KO fight),  tree seats and bridges over which to play Pooh sticks or just peg a stone or one hundred. 

Wooded walkways look different every visit, dressed in their seasonal colours.  The castle is home to a vast collection of magnolias, I think some of these may have suffered over our recent very harsh winter.  Sweeping down from the terraces towards the river, strongly scented with Azaleas, are grassy slopes peppered with wildflowers.   These are very pretty, but far more importantly they're fun. What are slopes if not for rolling down, right?

In this sort of meadow grass it's easy to find plantain, a very common weed which we used to use as makeshift pop guns as kids.  The stalk is tough and doesn't break when you bend it, it bends very nicely usually, so you sort of loop it up and over the main stem, pinch it tightly and drag it forward sharply to pop off the head. Very much a close range weapon, of course :)



Goose grass is another one for running pitch battles, it's sticky and good for tangling your opponent up. 

The telescope is impressive to this day - In the early 1840’s, the Third Earl of Rosse designed and built the largest telescope in the world. I remember being really proud of that as a kid, we had the 1840s equivalent of the Hubble :)  People came from all over Europe to use it.  The spiral nature of some galaxies was discovered with this telescope, (Reflecting) and it was the largest in the world for over 70 years.  It is fully restored and still works (how cool would it be to get a look!)  The musuem has lots of information about it, alongside interactive models to explain how it worked.

The Demense is blessed with river, lake and streams, a small waterfall and a very old, still working gravity fountain.  No trip is complete without a chance to feed the ducks.  These are very persistent ducks, Irish ducks skilled at guilt tripping you if you don't come armed with something edible. 

Just beware of the killer roses...

My dad used to tell us about Fairy Pancake mixture, that yellowy looking foam that builds up on streams sometimes. I assume he got it from The Fairies by William Allingham
"They live on crispy pancakes Of yellow tide-foam;"  It's always appeaed to me though.

Although seating is provided all over the Demesne (including excellently kept picnic tables) the kids decided they'd find their own: 

 There are any nu,ber of points at which you can stop and engage in some river watching, fast or slow, over stone walls or wooden rails all through the walk.  You don't have to drag your kids away from just one opportunity to play pooh sticks or just drop leaves and stones in, they come along nice and regularly throughout the whole visit. 

The fernery with it's gravity fountain and yet another bridge.  It's usually dark and cool in here, heaven for ferns. 

 This is the Shell Well, instant fascination for young kids.  (the light was getting very poor at this stage)

I always tend to finish a visit by working around to the formal gardens with their hornbeam cloister walk, planted by Anne, Countess of Rosse in the 1940s around an original layout and the world's tallest box hedges. There is a fig, some fantastically scented old roses a spectacular wisteria.  The goldfish pond was murky,  so there was only the merest hint of a flash of gold alongside an unfortunate drowned rodent.

Cloisters are wonderful for assasins sneaking up on younger kids..