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:
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)