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.

Once the centre of a 2000 acre estate and built for the Quaker Robert Power about 1710; Burtown is close to the village of Ballitore, one of Ireland’s most prominent Quaker strongholds. Isabel Shackleton (married to the present owner’s great grandfather and first cousin to the explorer Ernest Shackleton) is responsible for some of the original layout of the garden, but over the last 20 years it has been greatly enlarged and reclaimed by the present owner, artist Lesley Fennell and her son photographer James Fennell. The gardens come to life in February with a spectacular show of winter aconites and snowdrops, followed by many varieties of daffodils, hellebores and trillium.

The 12 acres of gardens 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 kitchen garden and a large woodland garden surroundedon all sides by water, as well as sculpture walks through mature parkland.

Bookings for garden groups and private parties are possible all year round, as well as tours of this original historic quaker house and its gardens.….Read more