As it’s a rather wet and miserable Sunday morning here, I thought I would share some pictures of a recent trip to the walled garden at Glenarm Castle. We went there a few weeks ago, when unlike today, it was warm and sunny and we were able to meander around this magnificent garden and admire it in full bloom.

The walled garden is one of Ireland’s oldest walled gardens dating from the 18th century. Glenarm Castle , approximately a 35 minute drive from Belfast and situated along the famous Causeway Coast, is the ancestral home of the McDonnells, earls of Antrim and the garden, re-opened in 2005, accepts visitors between Easter and the end of September. We arrived around lunchtime and decided to have a bite to eat  first. The tea room is an absolute joy – spacious and beautifully decorated and with lots of homemade food on offer. We settled for sandwiches and cake ( I cannot resist a slice of carrot cake) and feeling suitably replenished, we set off to explore the gardens.

First up was the vegetable garden, packed full with onions, cauliflower, leeks, salad leaves..in fact, too many veg to mention them all here. I sighed at the sight of it all..as I would love to have this in my own garden one day.

Then it was on to one of the main attractions..the hot border. Filled with bright and bold summer flowers swaying in the breeze, it was quite a sight and we kept stopping to admire the different colourful varieties with the bees buzzing around us.

The next border that greeted us was filled with dreamy hydrangeas ( I sighed again !)

and as we turned right to walk to the top of the garden, we passed this beautiful tree. I wish I had made a note of its’ name as the pretty cascades of white flowers seem to go on forever.

Perhaps my favourite of the day ( and there were a few) were the wildflower borders that came into view as we walked on further. I just wanted to run through these like Laura Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie…. Needless to say, we lingered here for some time.

Reluctantly we had to drag ourselves away from the wildflowers and continue our walk, passing by the fruit trees and back to our starting point.  The tea room has some outside seating areas where we sat down for a mid afternoon coffee, surrounded by rambling roses, before heading home.

All in all, a lovely Saturday afternoon day trip exploring somewhere new on our doorstep, amongst the flowers and in the sunshine.

For more information on visiting times, entrance fees etc, you can visit the Glenarm Castle website. I should add there is plenty of parking on site and and a small gift shop adjacent to the tea room.  And if you have some time left after your visit to the garden, you can always stop in the village of Glenarm itself. I shared pictures of the lovely village on a previous post Weekend wanderings.