Illnacullin

Situated in the picturesque harbour of Glengarriff, the „Island of the Holly“ (or Garnish/Garinish Island) is known to garden enthusiasts from all over the world.
During the short trip by ferry you will come along a colony of harbour seals lying on the rocks like mermaids and swimming around the boat. If you decide to take the Blue Pool Ferry you will also have most magnificent looks into the romantic Blue Pool Area, which you should discover later on your return to the mainland on an extended walk. Sugar Loaf Mountain and the Caha Mountain range meet the water and form the pittoresque background toward the Northwest.
Southeastwards you might have a glimpse of the ruin of Glengarriff Castle almost hidden in its famous park of exotic trees. To its right there is the white house (full of chimneys) of famous Irish actrice Maureeen O’Hara. It is worth to buy the entertaining hollywood-movie DVD „The Quiet Man“, one of the many films she did with John Wayne.

About a hundred years ago Violet le Strange spent a summer at Glengarriff Castle and must have fallen deeply in love with this wonderful part of Irish coastline and probably she started dreaming of living on one of the small islands across the bay. So after she got married to the Edwardian millionaire and politician John Annan Bryce MP (1874-1923) both decided to buy Illnacullin, which was then a barren island in the middle of the bay. The only structure on it was a Martello Tower from around 1805 built by the British War Office in anticipation to defend this part of County Cork against Napoleon and the French invadors. As the island had been part of of the Bantry House estates the contract from 1910 was set up between the Board of Ordnance and Annan Bryce MP with a perpetual payment of £ 80 a year to the Earl of Bantry.

Now their miraculous project could start: the transformation of bare rocks into a botanical Noah’s Ark. Annan Bryce was a member of the National Geographic Society and was probably influenced by exotic gardens he had seen during his career in the Far East. It is thought that the Bryces brought over tons of topsoil from the mainland, but this is only speculation, as the American writer Harold Speakerman (1888-1928) decribes his encounter with Violet Bryce in „Here’s Ireland“ (1924): „The lady greeted me cordially. ‚I hope,’ she said, as we went up a path made rich by the scent of early roses, ‚I hope that you haven’t heard the ridiculous story about our bringing boatloads of earth here from the mainland!’ ‚Millions of boatloads...’ I quoted. ‚Now where could you have heard that!’ she demanded with some warmth. ‚I never knew anything so stupid!’ ‚It was an old woman coming over the hill,’ I said. ‚But it doesn’t seem so bad to me. If a place were barren and one wanted to live here, why shouldn’t soil be brought from anywhere?’ She looked at me imperiously and a little scournfully. (Evidently this was a subject of long standing and some delicacy.) ‚In the first place, there isn’t land on the mainland to take away; in the second, the thing is too silly. I can’t imagine any one doing a thing like that – except perhaps an American millionaire!’ ‚Whew! This isn’t beginning very well,’ I thought. But in another moment she had forgotten her annoyance and was showing me a path so completely carpeted with fallen pink blossoms that in places it was entirely hidden from sight.“.

In any case it took years to enrich the existing thin peaty soils and to establish a shelter belt of conifers, mainly Corsican and Monterey pines (Pinus laricio, P. radiata) and Monterey cypresses (Cupressus macrocarpa), against the regular strong gales coming from the Atlantic. Thanks to the warming influence of the Gulfstream a mild microclimate could be established, as many subtropical plants from all over the world, especially from New Zealand and Tasmania, were to be planted. Famous landscape designer Harold Peto (1844-1933) was commisioned to build a luxurious mansion incorporating the Martello Tower and remaining parts of a fort, and to lay out a waste Italian garden along with classical elements influenced by neo-Romanesque and Italian Renaissance features. as well as historical artefacts such as fountains, statues, vases and iron gates. A Byzantine tomb and a sculptured stone relief were to be added, some of which can still be found in the walled garden. The sight of the cone shaped Sugar Loaf Mountain in the background surely reminded Peto of the sight of Fuji Mountain he had seen on a trip to Japan in 1898, and he included this feature in the planning of the temple, from where you can still enjoy magnificent views (near Stop 4).

While a 100 men worked there for three years the Bryces were living in the enlarged gardener’s cottage, which was still inhabited some ten years ago by their late caretaker. But the outbreak of World War I slowed down their ambitious plans as the Bryces came into unexpected financial troubles. The mansion was never built but the pavillions with their oriental roof lines in the Italian Garden along with the rectangular lily pond and a Greek temple at one end of the Happy Valley as well as the Romanesque clock tower can still be admired today. They were even featured as romantic backgrounds in some films like the German made „Jenseits des Ozeans“ from Robin Pilcher (2006). The copy of a statue of the Roman God Mercury by Gianbologna (1529-1608) as well as some Japanese bonsais in ancient Roman pots still add a classical impression to the pond area. The bonsai larch (Larix) is said to be about 300 years old, it is planted in a container said to be 2000 years old. The tennis courts behind the casita were reverted to lawn so the nowadays visitor can fully enjoy the wide eastern front of the casita. Harold Peto’s love for traditional oriental landscaping can also be recognized at the sight of lichened rocks, vaste plantations of azaleas, rhododendrons and combinations of the Japanese Umbrella pine (Sciadopytis vertillicata) with Pieris formosa, Magnolias (M. stellata, M. grandiflora, M. delavayi).

Some five years after Annan Bryce died at the age of only 50 years, the legendary Scottish head gardener Murdo Mackenzie came to look after the garden along with Violet and her son Rowland from 1928 on. The enthusiastic Scot stayed there until his retirement in 1971, the main structures of the garden we walk through today is mainly his work. The astonishing combination of wild Robinsonian plantings and compartmented architectural framework along with the Bryce’s welcoming hospitality led many artists to Illnacullin, among them George Bernhard Shaw (1856-1950) and his wife Charlotte Payne, and George Russel known as AE. Harold Speakerman wrote in „Here’s Ireland“: „’That is Shaw’s place where you are sitting,’ said my hostess. She went on to tell of the things she had heard him say there, and of the brilliant, fiery play of ideas, rising like a winged flame above certain gatherings in which that astonishing commentator on men and gods (and sometimes women) had struck the first spark; of an actual élan, an almost physical impact of opposing theories and their discharge into verbal flashes of lightning, making for some the chaos less chaotic, but for others, the darkness dark indeed. He loved the island and knew its moods. Then too, this was a place where an interviewer would not be popping up from beneath every rose bush, or swinging coyly down from every ginkgo tree ... ‚This is he bachelor quarters,’ said the lady, ‚and this is where A.E. stays when he is here.’ I looked about the wide room with its fluted marble columns, its chaste, classical decorations, and its stone floors covered by the skins of tiger and bear and deer. Beyond the other was the beauty of the sea. And I thought to myself, ‚If George Russel is he man of his poems, there are times when this spot would suit him very well.’ ... ‚He tells me he likes it here,’ went on the lady, ‚he has painted every nook and corner of the island.’ ‚And that,’ I said, looking at certain indelible marks on the stone floor of the portico, ‚is where he cleans his palette.’ “ And one of the first Abbey Theatre playwrights Padraig Colum (1881-1972) wrote in „Cross Roads in Ireland“ in 1930: „It was the happy thought of a lady living here to make one of the islets off Glengarriff, Garinish, into a garden. This happy thought has been realized in a way that recalls Edgar Allan Poe’s ‚Landor’s Cottage’. Mrs. Annan Bryce has now spent many years collecting and cultivating flowers, trees, and plants that can grow here – and many subtropical species can grow here. And she has made her island-garden part of the landscape: one looks down a vista of ilexes to the Kerry Mountains. One walks down an avenue of blooming Mediterranean shrubs to the water of this Irish bay. One sees fanstastic orchids close to rocks on which the native heather has been left to flourish. Garinish has been made into a garden of gardens. And it is not merely an enchanting botanic display. There is a home amids this profusion of trees and plants and flowers – the friendly home of Mrs. Annan Bryce. Painters and writers have been made welcome here. Here is the lovely little house in which Bernhard Shaw worked at ‚Saint Joan’.

Annan Bryce’s widow relinquished responsibility of the management of Illnacullin to their son Rowland in 1931. He later bequeathed the island with all its contents to the Irish state. Unfortunately the estate was insolvent by the moment of his death in December 1953 and it was found out that Mackenzie and his six under gardeners from the mainland had not seen a regular salary since 1938. They were dependent on a share of the entrance fees, as the island had become a tourist destination in the meantime.

In Illnacullin there are many Champion trees, among them the tallest manuka tree (Leptospermum scoparium) in Europe. In its native New Zealand the aborigines use the leaves to destill a highly natural antibiotic essential oil. Its strikingly reddish flowers at the end of May and beginning of June and only then is the time when people give this unspectacular tree (mostly seen as a small shrub) any attention.
Some further outstanding plants are: the vines Wisteria floribunda and Clianthus puniceus around the casita, the bizzare red flowers of which look like shrimps, nearby the rare Japanese „Sacred bamboo“ (Nandine domestica) spreads an oriental flair and the minuscule yellow flowers of Corokia cotoneaster smell like vanilla custard; the ugly barb wire like shrub from Brazil at the southwestern end of the Happy Valley might be of spezial interest for kids, as its leaves look like military jetfighters. It was planted to protect the graceful acer palmatum planted behind: too many hands used to pick the beautifully shaped leaves.
Kauri pines (Agathis australis) as well as Dacrydium franklinii from Tasmania and two Eurcryphias (E. x hillieri and E. E. lucida) near Stop 7 are more than rare in Europe. The huge Rhododendron sinogrande nearby came directly from the collection of famous plant hunter Frank Kingdon-Ward. In the Djungle area you might expect dinosaurs hiding between the darkness of several magnificent treeferns like Dicksonia antartica and Cyathea dealbata.
Camelia enthusiasts might appreciate Illnacullin at the start of the season around easter, the colourful and sometimes fragrant fireworks from hundreds of rhododendrons, azaleas and Chilean firebushes (Embothrium coccineum) can be admired from May through July and from then on some tall Hoherias with their jasmin-like flowers and the gigantic spikes from xxx attract everybody’s attention in the Walled Garden. Children always love to climb the branches and trunks of a monster-like Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) near the café.

Don’t miss the amazing looks from the Martello tower – the very narrow steps are definitely worth the effort. Inside the entrance hall, right in the middle, you should sing or recite a small poem as there will be a echo-like replication of your voice which may give you goosebumps.

Bibliography
Nigel Everett: Wild Gardens – The Lost Desmenes of Bantry Bay. Hafod Press
Penelope Durell & Cornelius Kelly: The Grand Tour of Beara. Cailleach Books 2000
Various contributors: Sacred Heart Church – A centenary celebration 2002
Cormac Foley (OPW): Illnacullin 1993
Various contributors: A History of Derrycreha National School and its Area 1995
Olda FitzGerald: Irish Gardens. Hearst Books 1999


© Eliane Zimmermann, no unauthorized copies permitted


The rhododendrons at Illnacullin

Rhododendron ‚Arthur Smith’
Rhododendron ‚Blue Diamond’
Rhododendron ‚Bonito’
Rhododendron ‚Bric a Brac’
Rhododendron ‚Charles Smith’
Rhododendron ‚Cilpense’
Rhododendron ‚Countess of Haddington’
Rhododendron ‚Damaris’
Rhododendron ‚Fabia’
Rhododendron ‚G. Hardy’
Rhododendron ‚Golden Horn Persimmon’
Rhododendron ‚Idealist’
Rhododendron ‚Jacquetta’
Rhododendron ‚Kewense’
Rhododendron ‚Lady Roseberry’
Rhododendron ‚Mrs. Kingsmill’
Rhododendron ‚Princess Alice’
Rhododendron ‚Red Cap’
Rhododendron ‚Romany Chat’
Rhododendron ‚Ruby’
Rhododendron ‚Sheila Moore’
Rhododendron ‚Temple Bell’
Rhododendron aberconwayi
Rhododendron arborescens
Rhododendron arboreum
Rhododendron augustinii
Rhododendron auritum
Rhododendron basilicum
Rhododendron brachysyphon
Rhododendron bureavii
Rhododendron burmanicum
Rhododendron callimorphum
Rhododendron carolinianum (punctatum)
Rhododendron ciliatum
Rhododendron concatenans
Rhododendron crassum
Rhododendron crassum
Rhododendron davidsonianum
Rhododendron edgeworthii
Rhododendron falconeri
Rhododendron fimbriatum
Rhododendron fortunei
Rhododendron fragrantissimum
Rhododendron glaucophyllum
Rhododendron griffithianum
Rhododendron gymnocarpum
Rhododendron haematodes ‚Major’
Rhododendron heliolepsis
Rhododendron hippopharoides
Rhododendron impeditum
Rhododendron insigne
Rhododendron iteophyllum
Rhododendron keiskei
Rhododendron macabeanum
Rhododendron maddenii
Rhododendron magnificum
Rhododendron martinianum
Rhododendron megacalyx
Rhododendron megacalyx (pink)
Rhododendron metternichi
Rhododendron mucronatum
Rhododendron nobleanum ‚Venustum’
Rhododendron olearia
Rhododendron polyandrum
Rhododendron pseudoyanthimum
Rhododendron racemosum
Rhododendron rex
Rhododendron rubiginosum
Rhododendron russatum
Rhododendron scintillans
Rhododendron sinogrande
Rhododendron supranumbium
Rhododendron taggianum
Rhododendron thomsonii
Rhododendron triflorum
Rhododendron tsangpoense