Heywood House

Description

Heywood Gardens is the site of two garden types: the great park created by Frederick Trench in the late 1700s and the small interlocked formal gardens created by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll in the early 1900s. After Trench built Heywood House in 1773, he landscaped the area between his house and the village of Ballinakill. Inspired by his Grand Tour of Europe, Trench moved hills, dug lakes, planted trees and placed follies. His results were considered to be the most exquisite romantic landscape of their time. In the early 1900s, Colonel Hutchenson Poe hired the Sir Edwin Lutyens to create formal gardens around Heywood House. The gardens were probably landscaped by Gertrude Jekyll. The gardens were completed in 1912 at a cost of £250,000.The formal gardens contrast with views of the landscape. A walk lined with pollarded lime trees leads to a formal terrace overlooking the surrounding countryside. Another terrace overlooks one of the lakes dug by Trench in the 1700s, where it is possible to spot moorhens, kingfishers and other waterbirds. In the sunken garden, circular terraces descend to an elliptical pool, where small statues of turtles gaze inquisitively at the grand fountain. On the top level a loggia, roofed with red tiles, includes an inscription taken from the writings of Alexander Pope. In the wall that surrounds the garden, each circular window frames a view of the landscape constructed by Frederick Trench. The house was burnt down in 1950, probably due to an electrical fault. (Contributor: Paul Waite)

(additional notes by Mark Lutyens who visited Heywood on 4th May 2026):
To quote selectively from the Alexander Pope inscription mentioned by Paul above:

“In all – let Nature never be forgot ………
Paint as you plant and as you work design”;

Today, the visitor parks at the end of narrow wooded valley next to the old lodge gates
which was the main approach to the house (which no longer exists). We followed signs to
'The Lutyens Gardens', up the old carriage drive, passing some sham ruins and glimpsing the
modern school that now occupies the site of the old house. The approach is not impressive.
But suddenly, you come to the Lutyens Gardens and you enter another world; older, larger
and more generously proportioned – like a lost Inca city; wide terraces and great stone
retaining walls. Situated just below the site of the old house, but still on high ground, there
are commanding views out over a wide, pastural Irish landscape. The walling stone is blue
grey and the broad paths are paved with Liscannor stone slabs which match the colour of
the sky. Next to the very large, central grass terrace (perhaps once a tennis court), there is a
sunken pergola with views down to the lake below. Beyond, there is a formal lime allée
marked by tall gates at both ends and a retaining wall with recessed galleries, which leads to
the sunken pool garden. The gardens have been restored recently; repaired and replanted –
by the Office of Public Works (OPW) who now own them. As with Hestercombe,
Abbotswood and Marshcourt, one is reminded that Lutyens was a very great garden
designer. In his biography The Life of Sir Edwin Lutyens, Christopher Hussey records
that the Heywood scheme, ‘though architecturally superb, proved very much more
costly than the client had contemplated" (Mark Lutyens 7/05/26)

Bibliography

, Hicks, D. (2013) Irish Country Houses: A chronicle of change. Cork: Collins Press.

WEAVER, L., 1919. COUNTRY HOMES GARDENS OLD & NEW: HEYWOOD–I. QUEEN’S COUNTY, IRELAND, THE SEAT OF SIR W. HUTCHESON POË, Bart. Country Life (Archive : 1901 – 2005), 45(1148), pp. 16-22.

WEAVER, L., 1919. COUNTRY HOMES GARDENS OLD & NEW: HEYWOOD–II. QUEEN’S COUNTY, IRELAND, THE SEAT OF SIR W. HUTCHESON POE, Bart. Country Life (Archive : 1901 – 2005), 45(1149), pp. 42-47.

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