Fota Island
Home to the Smith-Barry family, Fota is located eight miles (13 km) from Cobh on Cork Harbour. Hugh Smith-Barry (1816–57) reclaimed tidal margins} from the sea and planted shelter-belts of fir, establishing a 4-acre (16,000 m2) fruit garden and 15-acre (61,000 m2) arboretum. His son Lord Barrymore with his gardener William Osborne continued with the planting of exotics including Nordmann Fir (Abies nordmanniana) from the Caucasus in 1838. The tradition of planting continued under the more recent ownership of University College Cork. The house, arboretum and gardens are now managed by a Trust, the remainder of the island being divided between a wildlife park and a golf course.
Read more about this topic: Historic Cork Gardens
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)