Campaigners are fighting to save the last walled garden in Westport, Co. Mayo, from developers.
The one-acre garden is over 200 years old and surrounded by high stone walls, enclosing ornamental beds, rose bowers and pathways as well as an orchard, bowling green, vegetable plot and water feature. Originally it supplied fresh produce for the Dower House, built in 1809 for the widow of the Marquis of Sligo, but which latterly housed the local branch of the Bank of Ireland. Many local residents can remember going to the Garden to buy vegetables grown there – as well as stealing into the orchards to scrump apples!
The Bank put the garden up for sale in 1999, prompting the formation of the Westport Civic Trust to try to secure it for the local community as a fully-restored heritage garden. The Trust was not able to raise the funds to buy the garden outright, and since then the land has changed hands several times, with each attempt to develop it thwarted.
Following the tireless campaign by the Civic Trust to protect the garden from disappearing under concrete, the town council has now declared three-quarters of the garden as a protected open space, but the remaining quarter goes up for auction next month. The Civic Trust has called on the public to help raise funds to save the garden and its protected Georgian outbuildings and help return them to their former glory, preserving original plants, restoring paths and terraces, and creating a central open green space for the community to enjoy. Among plans for the garden are a sensory garden, raised beds, wildlife habitats and fruit and vegetable plots.
“The garden is a unique entity, certainly in the West of Ireland,” said Trust Chairman Henry Horkan. “It is worthy of preservation as part of the town’s heritage.”
