Thursday Doors – Florence Court – Part 2

In part 2 of this Thursday Doors Florence Court tour we’ve gone through the narrow archway and ended up at the estate’s forge. I can only imagine how hot this place must have been for the blacksmith back in the day when we had long hot summers in Ireland. Did we ever have long hot summers here? I do remember one when I was a child but that was over half a century ago – we must be due another one.

Very close to the forge stands the cattle yard. The blacksmith didn’t have to go too far to brand them.

Opposite this yard stands a building with two large red doors. It reminds me of an old fire station but I think it was a stables or similar for holding animals as it’s so close to both the cattle yard and forge.

Speaking of fire . . .

In the early hours of March 22nd, 1955, a fire started on the first floor of the big house, next to Lady Enniskillen’s bedroom. Her husband was away at the time but she was there to raise the alarm. By 9.00 am, fire brigades almost had the blaze extinguished but dry weather conditions made it difficult to keep all the flames at bay and they eventually reached the roof of the building. By evening, a large part of the interior of the house was destroyed, leaving about two-thirds of it in ruins, damaged by fire and water. That dry spell was just a few years before I was born so that means we’ve probably had two long hot summers here in Ireland in the past hundred years. There goes my hopes for one in 2023, so.

I’m joking about the weather here. Although long, hot days are not a regular feature of Irish summers, when the sun shines we make the most of it, if we can, and really appreciate it. The temperate climate here suits me and the plus side is, we don’t have the extremes a lot of other countries do. Well, I don’t think I’ve ever said this before but let’s get away from all those red doors and have a look at some greenery.

These are some of the walls surrounding a four acre garden which contains vegetable plots , orchards, fruit trees, a rose garden and two ponds. As I was there in late winter there isn’t too much to see but I hope to return and catch it all in full bloom.

Yes, that’s another red door looking back at you. They’re everywhere! To the right you can see what used to be the head gardener’s residence. Rose Cottage was built in the 1840s but was derelict by the 1990s. Thankfully, it has been restored and is available as a holiday rental.

Let’s take a peek inside that walled garden, although I don’t expect to see too much at this time of year.

Rose Cottage is bigger than I expected. I would have been very happy to live there. What a great place to spend a weekend with all those lovely gardens on your doorstep.

No point exploring the various gardens at this time of year. I’ll leave that for another day. I hope you enjoyed part 2 of Florence Court, thanks for coming along and if you’d like to see a lovely international array of Thursday Doors, skip on over to Dan’s blog.