Rural and Urban Landscapes

Grassland Dunes of Bull Island

Further inland from the sandy dune ridges of Bull Island, Dublin are the older stabilized grassland dunes and slacks covered by the greatest variety of grasses and wildflowers found on the island. In summer, yellow is the dominant flower colour provided in succeeding waves by bird’s-foot trefoil, yellow rattle, kidney vetch and lady’s bedstraw. In addition to the marshy slack areas previously described (see Freshwater Marshes), other different types of habitat are lichen and moss-covered dune tops, sandy dune hollows, moist short grass areas and the taller dry grasses of the more open spaces. No type of habitat is without its own complement of wildflowers. Of special interest are the many different types of orchids found throughout the grasslands. The golden rule “Never pick a wildflower” is especially applicable in the case of orchids. Most orchid seeds require interaction with a soil fungus for germination and it can then take from 4-14 years for the seed to produce a flowering stem.

By kind permission of Dorothy Forde

Grassland Dunes of Bull Island
By kind permission of Dorothy Forde

Grassland Dunes of Bull Island

Further inland from the sandy dune ridges of Bull Island, Dublin are the older stabilized grassland dunes and slacks covered by the greatest variety of grasses and wildflowers found on the island. In summer, yellow is the dominant flower colour provided in succeeding waves by bird’s-foot trefoil, yellow rattle, kidney vetch and lady’s bedstraw. In addition to the marshy slack areas previously described (see Freshwater Marshes), other different types of habitat are lichen and moss-covered dune tops, sandy dune hollows, moist short grass areas and the taller dry grasses of the more open spaces. No type of habitat is without its own complement of wildflowers. Of special interest are the many different types of orchids found throughout the grasslands. The golden rule “Never pick a wildflower” is especially applicable in the case of orchids. Most orchid seeds require interaction with a soil fungus for germination and it can then take from 4-14 years for the seed to produce a flowering stem.

By kind permission of Dorothy Forde

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While cities and suburbs might initially seem unpromising territory for plantlife, their spread often embraces and protects a rich variety of small habitats in which interesting species still survive. A number of local surveys have shown the fascination that local exploration can provide. In a project mounted by the County Library Service in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, a photographic essay on local wildflowers such as Meadowsweet and Foxglove includes material about their traditional and medicinal uses. Across Dublin Bay, 'The Wildflowers of North Bull Island' are celebrated in a Parks Division leaflet held in the city libraries. In South Dublin , the growing interest in the flora and fauna of the parks is being met by a County Library website enriched by recordings of birdsong.

The modern map of Irish farmland has obliterated, to a great extent, the pattern of old, walled estates, or demesnes, which once covered more than five per cent of the island. In the 17th and 18th centuries, a new fashion for romantically 'natural' landscape dominated the design of some 800,000 acres of parkland, with more than 7,000 houses featuring large ornamental landscapes. They were planted with great numbers of trees and shrubs, many of them exotic species brought from England and the Continent, while most of the countryside outside the walls remained dramatically treeless.

Winter Garden, Woodstock House

Photograph of the Winter Garden, Woodstock House, Inistioge, County Kilkenny looking north-east

Winter Garden, Woodstock House

Winter Garden, Woodstock House

Photograph of the Winter Garden, Woodstock House, Inistioge, County Kilkenny looking north-east

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Many of these demesnes and their gardens were dismembered or overplanted with conifers in the early years of the State, but others have survived in private hands and are now prized for their contribution to the Irish flora. At Inistioge in County Kilkenny, where Woodstock House was burned in 1922, the fine gardens,with their lofty avenues of monkey puzzle and noble fir, are under restoration by the county council in conjunction with the 'Great Gardens of Ireland' project. Another big estate, that of Randalstown, near Navan, was made remarkable by a tobacco plantation, the heart of a commercial project founded by Sir Nugent Everard that came to an end only in 1939. An evocative account of this enterprise is mounted at Meath County Library.