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When people think of Ireland, they think of green rolling fields and majestic landscapes, but the island is also home to some magnificent gardens. With its high rainfall and mild, temperate climate, Ireland has the perfect conditions for cultivating a stunning diversity of plant life.

You’ll find a garden for any taste across the island – pristine formal and walled gardens that echo a time long past; fun, quirky gardens that take influences from across the world; and gardens nestled into bustling cities.

So if you’re a green-fingered gardening fanatic, or if you simply want to marvel at the beautiful flowers on display – you’ll find something for all tastes on the island of Ireland...

The best place to start, naturally, is the most famous gardens. Many of these spots tend to be flanked by an impressive stately home that adds to the mystique.

Take Mount Stewart for example. This 19th-century house in County Down hosts grand, interlocked gardens that were planned by Lady Londonderry, who designed them according to her idiosyncratic and varied tastes. Thanks to the mild climate of Strangford Lough, she was able to cultivate an array of plants from around the world, enhanced with inventive planting schemes. Its current Head of Gardens, Neil Porteous has built on the lady’s formidable legacy, layering his own innovative ideas over her powerful foundation.

Voted Number 3 in the World’s Top Ten Gardens by National Geographic, Powerscourt in County Wicklow is full of surprises, from the Pets Cemetery to the life-sized statues of winged horses. But it’s the plant life that makes it special. In spring, Powerscourt is an explosion of vibrant colours, especially late in the season when the azaleas and camellias are in full flower. Later in the summer, herbaceous plants such as roses and flowering shrubs bloom, and as the year winds to a close, it’s the turn of daphnes and winter jasmine.

Other well-known gardens around the island include Mount Congreve in County Waterford, which houses the largest collection of plants in Ireland, and the National Botanic Garden at Kilmacurragh in County Wicklow, with its famous collection of conifers and rhododendrons.