The Gardens 

View more images from the gardens of Oakfield Park.........

The gardens of Oakfield Park have been restored extensively since 1996. The red brick lined, stone walled, garden attached to the house would have originally provided the whole estate with fresh fruit and vegetables. We have built on our own kitchen garden to supply the house, and laid the walled garden out in a formal, pleasure garden style with ponds, rills and deeply planted flower beds. Several small lawns, seating areas, a dovecote and a Victorian style greenhouse, edged with tall cypress trees and shaped yew hedges give the garden a graceful air.

The water that runs through the upper pond, through the rill and finally out through the oval pond is pumped by an original Victorian pump from the stream at the boundary of the property. All of the mature trees and woodlands surrounding the house are being managed to bring them back to their natural state after years of damage done by grazing cattle. In spring some of the woods are now swathed in drifts of bluebells. We have had many attempts at creating a wild flower meadow with limited success

The development of the lower gardens at Oakfield, is a project that has taken on a life of its own and has grown well beyond anything that we originally envisaged. The plot of just over 28 acres was purchased in 2000 with a vague intention of extending the Oakfield Upper Gardens. The fact that the land was very wet and boggy in places led to the idea of a lake as the centre piece. Tony Wright, the architect for the restoration of Oakfield, was asked to draft some outline plans. A ‘folly’ was thought of - it was originally to be just a front shape - but it grew into the small ‘castle’ now on the site. Because of the odd shape of the plot it was felt that a small railway might add to the accessibility of the site and so it went on…….

Digging of the lake began in ideal dry conditions in the late Autumn of 2001. We had six weeks of perfect conditions followed by the wettest six months for a very long time. Everything turned to mud and digging was held up throughout the winter. However by Spring 2002 the bulk of the lake had been dug and the heavy ground works completed. Phase 2 began later that year and included the building of the folly, the railway tracks, engine shed, causeway and the final landscaping and planting.

We carefully selected native Irish woodland trees and over 45,000 young saplings were planted, (in addition to some 15,000 in the upper grounds at Oakfield). Native Irish grasses and wild flowers (120,000 individual ‘plugs‘) were planted to create this new nature reserve area. It will of course be some years before the full effect of this planting is felt but already, you can get a sense of how it will look. The lake has attracted many varieties of bird and wildlife. Many families of mallard ducks have been successfully raised on the lake, as well as families of coots and grebe. The heron is a constant visitor, and many swans have shown an interest though none have nested yet. We have positioned many bird boxes around the grounds nearly all of which were nested in this spring.

Last year one of the major tasks was the planting up of the large reed beds around the lake edges. It was a struggle to keep the grass controlled to stop it choking the young reed plants, which meant a lot of back breaking work weeding in the water. However this summer we’ve been able to see the results of our hard work and the reeds and bulrushes are flourishing and starting to become established. Another large and messy task was the dredging of the river, underneath Franks Bridge before it enters the lock system and again as it emerges from the underground tunnel into Trout Lake. Over the years a huge volume of silt has been deposited. As the river speed slows down, it drops its sediments as it enters the calmer waters of the lake. We realise that this will have to become an annual event to prevent the area clogging up.

One of the nicest and most rewarding sights has been of an otter playing in the water. That was an unexpected bonus. Often we see the large red Irish hare, especially down by the tree circle along with foxes, badgers and hundreds of rabbits, (who seem to be enjoying eating all the wild grasses we planted for them!!). The varieties of dragonflies, damsel flies and the myriad of pond life that have taken up residence are a constant delight.

In spring, when the water in the stream is rushing over the ‘cling film’ bridge we’ve seen quite sizeable trout leaping, going up river to spawn. This is very exciting because it means that the whole local ecosystem is working well and wildlife is thriving in the river.

In 2003 another 17 acres were added to the estate. We have embarked on a major tree planting plan all over the grounds, planting mainly Irish native woodland species such as Oak, Ash, Alder, Willow, Hawthorn etc. Already in the very short time scale of five years we’ve been delighted with their success. A future plan is to plant many more different and exotic types of Oak tree around the grounds

Very recently a couple of large beech trees were felled to open up a brand new vista from the house. This beautiful view takes in the new fields which we recently planted up with a wide tree avenue, leading to the distant Croaghan mountain with its cairn and burial mound. We wondered if this was the original intended view from Oakfield Park?

At the end of the new fields in the lower gardens, we intend to build some kind of structure as a focal view point. As yet, we’ve not decided exactly what form it will take, one idea was for a small windmill with underground access to the workings. However the spiral mound that has ‘evolved’ as its foundation has a pleasingly ancient feel to it. Discussions as to what to put there continue. We’ve also been looking for a piece of sculpture to place in the middle of the tree circle which can be seen directly from the spiral mound.

Other projects

Other projects underway in the new fields are a Wetland area. This was a patch of ground that was naturally very boggy and we were aware of many Snipe nesting in the long grass. Instead of trying to drain the land we decided to go with the way it was and helped it by flooding it a little further. We’ve planted water tolerant trees around it such as willows and alders and will wait for a year or too for the land to recover and see what plants naturally take hold. The Boardwalk was built over a number of weeks using old telegraph poles as supports. These were ideal as they are very heavily treated with tar and will not rot in the wet ground. Timber from Oakfield provided the rest of the building material, as it has for many of the new bridges and garden buildings around.

Around the new wetland area will be an extension of the railway. There is already a hardcore foundation of stones laid and we expect to start the laying of the new track sometime this winter. The track will cross the road several times so we will have to think about building level crossings etc. There are also plans afoot to build a small station!

The last year has been a very exciting time for the gardens at Oakfield Park with many of our recent plans beginning to mature and take shape. The main lake is beginning to look as though it has always been there and the wildlife that is flocking in and taking up residence is proof of its’ success.

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