Welcome to Burtown, an artists' garden in Kildare open to the public
for the first time.
Burtown House, an early Georgian villa,
is surrounded by lush flower, vegetable and woodland
gardens with beautiful park and farmland walks.
“It is rare to find one of these houses still in the
possession of the descendants of the family that built it. Burtown is
one of these treasures, passed down through the generations and still
very much a family home”.
The Knight of Glin and James Peill - The Irish Country House.
The gardens at Burtown are unusual in that they are worked by three
generations of the family; Wendy Walsh, one of Ireland's
finest botanical artists; Wendy's daughter the painter Lesley Fennell,
and her son James, a professional photographer. Both Wendy Walsh & Lesley
Fennell have studios in situ that may be visited.
The Gardens
The gardens at Burtown are made up of several areas, including large
herbaceous borders, shrubberies, a rock garden, a yew walk divided by
a pergola, a sundial garden, an old orchard, a more formal stable yard
garden, a walled organic vegetable garden and a large woodland garden
surrounded on all sides by water.
Opening Times 2013
Early Spring
Snowdrops, aconites and early bulbs: 9th to 24th of February.
10.00am – 4.00pm daily, Cafe open daily serving lunches and
other goodies.
Spring / Summer
Gardens open April 13th - September 29th, 10.00am – 5.30pm,
Thursday - Sunday and bank holidays.
The Gallery Cafe is open every Thursday - Sunday serving coffee, tea,
homemade cakes and biscuits. Every Saturday and Sunday we serve scrumptious
lunches based on fresh seasonal produce from our organic kitchen garden.
Booking is recommended. Group bookings for garden groups are possible
all year round.
Entrance Fees to Garden and / or Gallery Cafe:
Adults: €6
Children: €4
Under under 6: Free
Become a Friend of Burtown for an annual fee
of €50 and visit as often as you like throughout the season for free! See
here for further details »
View the Gardens
Private Parties
Burtown House and Gardens are available for small parties
and celebrations. Marquees can be set up in different areas of the
garden, and lunches and birthday celebrations, anniversaries and
corporate events are all catered for. Guests can make use of the fine
18th Century drawing and dining rooms and extensive gardens with activities
such as farm walks, tennis and croquet. Please note that Burtown House
is not a guesthouse and therefore does not provide overnight accommodation.
View Private Parties
News & Events
March 2013
The gardens at Burtown and the Gallery Cafe will be open for St Patricks weekend, serving delicious lunches every day. We will open from 10 am - 5pm Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday, March 16th-18th.
February 2013 - more
Our gardens open this February 9th - February 24th for Snowdrops, Aconites
and many varieties of early bulbs. Due to the mild weather during Christmas -
we already have a great display of colour and many Hellebores are already out.
Soon it will be a sea of yellow, white, purple and green, and we look forward
to welcoming you all !
We are also launching an exhibition of 32 large photographs from the acclaimed
Vanishing Ireland series of books. This will be on view in the Gallery Cafe
which is open every day serving hearty lunches, soups, homemade cakes and
biscuits, with Italian coffee and tea.
There is much to see - come and visit and avail of our 'Friend
of Burtown'
membership which lets you visit throughout the year and bring up to three
friends for free.
October 2012 - more
In great excitement for 2013 we have just finished our new hanging
in the Gallery Cafe. Over thirty large photographs from the acclaimed
Vanishing Ireland books are now on display in the Gallery Cafe and
we await in great anticipation for the arrival of our snowdrops and
large collection of aconites and early bulbs. On February 9th we will
open the gardens and Gallery Cafe serving hearty lunches for our garden
visitors - every day until February 24th.
We would like to remind all that we have now introduced our new Friends
of Burtown Scheme - it
makes for a great Christmas present!
We look forward to welcoming you all in 2013!
September 2012 - more
The gardens and Gallery Cafe serving delicious lunches are open
until Sunday October 14th. This is your last chance to see the exhibition
of 70 paintings of Wendy Walsh, as next year we will be hosting a Vanishing
Ireland exhibition. However plans are in the pipe line to build a permanent
exhibition space to house Wendy's work.
This September 21st - Culture night - we will be opening our Gardens
and Gallery for free throughout the day. All are welcome to come visit
and enjoy the gardens and a tour of the garden by Anna Baggally, sister
to Lesley Fennell and youngest daughter of Wendy Walsh, which will
happen at 3.00pm followed by a talk about Wendy's exhibition.
If you have not visited this summer and seen Wendy's exhibition and
our garden we urge you to visit before October 15th.
August 2012 - more
The first of our new sculptures in the meadow walks arrived in June
- Eileen MacDonagh's five large stone sculptures look amazing in the
long grasses of the meadow walks. We also have sculpture by Sasha Sykes
of Farm 21, Catherine Greene and David King. We plan to develop our
Sculpture walks into Ireland's first permanent Sculpture Park. The
remaining 180 acres are slowly being taken over and put to a nature
reserve with mown pathways and sculpture.
We also featured on RTE's Nationwide on the 1st of the month, which
provided a great boost to our summer garden visitors. View
the episode here.
July 2012 - more
Sunday 29th July Helen Dillon gave a walk and talk in the luscious
gardens of Burtown. We had quite a turnout despite the weather and
Jo will be served delicious lunches in the Gallery Cafe. Based on fresh
seasonal produce from the kitchen garden, lunch is served every Saturday
and Sunday and has been going down very well - we recommend a visit
- however booking is essential!
In the gallery at Burtown, the exhibition of paintings by Ireland's
foremost botanical artist, Wendy Walsh, continues and will do so until
we close the gardens at the end of September or early October - depending
on the arrival of summer!
April 2012 - more
The gardens at Burtown opened in February 2012 for 2
and a half weeks, starting with displays of aconites, snowdrops, hellebores,
trilliums and other early bulbs, followed by a good daffodil collection
in March & April.
From May our gallery at Burtown will have an exhibition of paintings
by Ireland's for most botanical artist Wendy Walsh.
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