Emo Court - The House and Gardens Today

The House and Gardens Today

The approach to Emo Court today begins through a rather unobtrusive gateway. Within the grounds, a road runs for some distance through a beech wood which opens suddenly to give a view to the right of the house and the giant sequoias which now line an abandoned avenue, but originally the mile-long avenue was an approach to the house. These giant trees were first introduce in 1853 and named Wellingtonias in honour of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who died the previous year. Visitors are directed to a car park at the side, so that the house and its trees are preserved free from cars and from a goodly share of the 21st century. To the left are coach houses and servants’ quarters, to the right beautiful mature trees and in the centre the entrance front, dominated by a pediment supported by four graceful Ionic pillars. The Earl’s coat of arms fills the pediment and, to left and right, are 18th-century friezes depicting agriculture and the arts. Heraldic tigers guard the steps.

Inside the house, an octagonal entrance hall has doors in each of its four angles. Two of them really are entrances to other rooms. The others are simply there to give a balanced effect. A larger doorway leads to the Rotunda (inspired by the Pantheon), the most splendid feature of the mansion and also the way into two of the major rooms and out to the garden. Completed about 1860 by the Dublin architect William Caldbeck, it is two storeys high, surmounted by a dome which extends above the roof line of the rest of the house. Pilasters of Siena marble support the ornate ceiling.

The gardens at Emo are 35 hectares of magnificent naturalistic landscaped grounds and they have been brought back to the splendour of their past, with formal areas, woodland walks, abundant statuary and a 20-acre lake – an essential feature of neoclassical landscape design. Indeed many of the original statues were found in the waters of the lake and it is suspected they found their way there during the time the Jesuits were living in the property, who wanted to hide pagan nudity of figures, where they survived until their eventual discovery and restoration. The gardens are divided into two main areas. The Clucker, which contains some fine and rare specimen trees and vast glades of azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias and other shrubs. This part of the garden is at its magnificent best in late spring. The Grapery is an arboretum though which wind a series of pathway, each opening to vistas across the surrounding Slieve Bloom Mountains or towards the house. This is a marvellous place to visit in autumn especially when it is a blaze of dramatic colours.