Day 1 – Monday 21 August 2023

We transfer by coach from York to Leeds Bradford airport for our direct flight to Belfast City Airport (provisional times: dep 11.30, arr 12.30). Upon arrival we will be met by our tour manager, the writer, broadcaster and garden designer Trevor Edwards, and transfer to our first visit, the Titanic Experience, a state-of-the-art, six storey living monument to Belfast’s moving maritime legacy, built at the head of the slipways from which Titanic was launched. The stories of the two great sister ships built and launched here, RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic, are told in a series of displays, including a ‘Titanic Experience' exhibition and an ‘immersive theatre', which simulates diving underwater to explore the wreck. Learn about the men who built the ship that was hailed as the “new wonder of the world” and gain an insight into their daily lives during the construction. This visit will also provide a good introduction to the traditions and culture of Belfast and Northern Ireland in general.

Following our visit, we continue to our hotel, where we will enjoy a welcome drink followed dinner in the evening.

Day 2 – Tuesday 22 August 2023

Today, following our full Irish breakfast, we depart on a busy but rewarding day as we first visit Ballywalter Park, an Italianate palazzo mansion constructed by Charles Lanyon for Andrew Mulholland, great, great, great grandfather of the present owner. Through a careful process of restoration, dedication and enthusiasm Ballywalter Park is probably in as good a condition now as when it was originally built all those years ago and offers an opportunity to see how Victorian grandeur is matched with a contemporary twist. We are privileged to be joined here by Lord and Lady Dunleath, who will give us a personal guided tour of the house.

We continue to Mount Stewart, the dazzling and idiosyncratic gardens which bask in the micro climate of low rainfall and humid coastal air that exists here. The Italian Garden south of the house is in the form of a giant parterre, edged in startling golden thuja or smouldering purple berberis and filled with plantings of carmine, yellow and scarlet on one side, with cooler blue, lavender and grey on the other. Elsewhere, there is a Spanish garden with huge eucalyptuses looming in the woods behind, and an exuberant and formal sunken garden surrounded by a fine pergola planted with clematis, honeysuckle and roses. The neo-classical house has beautiful rooms and numerous art treasures of national importance, while remaining a family home. We return to our hotel for dinner.

Day 3 – Wednesday 23 August 2023

After breakfast this morning we move to the southern tip of Strangford Lough, where Castle Ward sits in a wooded valley with a memorable view towards the lough. Due to the differing tastes of its owners, Lord Bangor and his wife Lady Ann Bligh, the 18th Century mansion is built in two contrasting architectural styles, the Classical façade to the lawn and the Gothic facing Strangford Lough, making this one of the strangest architectural compromises created between two people.

In the afternoon we travel to Montalto Estate, a privately-owned demesne nestled in the heart of the picturesque Co Down countryside which dates back to the early 1600s and has only recently opened its gates to the public. Sir Arthur Rawdon – The Father of Irish Gardening – had earlier amassed a large collection of exotic foreign plants at Moira Castle and many of these were transferred to Montalto when his grandson Sir John moved onto the estate. We return to our hotel where dinner is served in the evening.

Day 4 – Thursday 24 August 2023

This morning after breakfast we will travel to Ballyedmond Castle and Gardens. The house we see today dates from 1849 and has a chequered history, having been raided and damaged by the IRA in the 1920s, occupied by the USAF in WWII and converted to a hotel in the 1960s, only to be fire bombed in a terrorist attack in 1979. It remained as a shell until Dr Edward Haughey, later Baron Ballyedmond, purchased it in the 1980s. The gardens, while maintaining the 19th century framework, have undergone extensive landscaping and restoration, along with ornamental planting. We will enjoy lunch here, served in the delightful orangery.

In the afternoon we travel to Hillsborough Castle, Her Majesty The Queen’s official residence in Northern Ireland. It is not strictly speaking a castle but a Georgian country house, built in the 18th century for the Hill family, Marquesses of Downshire, who owned it until 1922. The 6th Marquess sold the mansion to the British government and it became the official residence of the Governor of the newly created province of Northern Ireland and later the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Since 2014 it has been managed by Historic Royal Palaces who commissioned a £16m restoration programme which has breathed new life into this historic building. We return to the hotel where dinner is served.

Day 5 – Friday 25 August 2023

After breakfast we travel along the scenic Antrim coast, where we visit Glenarm Castle, the 400 year old home of the Viscount and Viscountess Dunluce and their family. In the house we will see superb examples of Irish furniture as well as portraits of family members from the early 17th Century through to the present day. Originally created to supply the Castle with its fruit and vegetables, The Walled Garden is now filled with exciting flowers and specimen plants.

We continue to the Giant’s Causeway, where an impressive new National Trust visitor centre has enhanced this famous beauty spot. The 37,000 hexagonal basaltic columns were created by ancient volcanic eruptions some 60 million years ago, along the same chain of seismic activity that created Fingal’s Cave on Staffa, a hundred miles or so to the north. Of course, there is also a more romantic explanation – that it was built by the giant Finn McCool, as the consequence of a gargantuan spat with a Scottish adversary, although another version of the legend has it that he was merely trying to reach his girlfriend. Either way it is an impressive sight. Lunch is available here (not included).

Following this we transfer to Belfast City Airport for our evening flight to Leeds Bradford (provisional times: dep 20.35, arr 21.40), where on arrival our coach will be wating to transfer us back to York.