The Walled Garden

An oasis of calm and tranquility situated right in the centre of the Estate, the beautifully restored Walled Garden is a perfect venue for small intimate weddings and gatherings.  Completely enclosed and surrounded by high stone walls the walled garden has flowers beds, beautiful green lawns, a raised pergola overlooking the entire garden and a soothing water feature.  As well as providing a beautiful backdrop for weddings the Walled Garden is also an ideal venue for a variety of special events.  Whether you are looking to toast a birthday or anniversary or hold a charity event the Walled Garden adds a special atmosphere to any occasion.
For more information please get in touch [email protected]

Weddings

The Walled Garden provides the perfect backdrop for any special occasion and is a magical setting for a wedding.  Have your ceremony by the water feature or arrive in style from your Church ceremony and enjoy the beautiful drive from the entrance gates through the Estate grounds to the Walled Garden.  Let your photographer capture your special wedding memories within the grounds of the Estate and then enjoy celebrating your day with family and friends in the Garden Room.  We provide the venue and you bring your dream wedding to life.  For full details on facilities available please get in touch [email protected]

Clodagh and Michael

We had our wedding reception at Woodhouse Estate in July 2020.

It was truly a fantastic day which was made even more special thanks to the unique and picturesque surroundings at Woodhouse.

Our family and friends were especially amazed by the woodland entrance, beautiful walled garden and stunning reception room. We loved knowing that the majority of our guests had never visited Woodhouse before, making it a very pleasant surprise.

June and Ted were incredibly helpful on the run up to our day and could not have done any more to make us feel calm and collected. We were so grateful.

We would highly recommend Woodhouse Estate to any future brides and grooms to be.

Clodagh and Michael

Paul and Róisín Whyte

Jennifer and the team at Woodhouse Estate provided us with an exceptional wedding experience from the very first day of planning. We had our wedding in Woodhouse on the 12th December 2020. We had a stress-free build up to the day knowing that the fantastic team had everything under control. In the days leading up to the wedding, Jennifer kindly answered plenty of emails and phone calls, helping us in any way she could.
Woodhouse Estate is a stunning location. Most of our guests experienced the fabulous grounds for the first time and were hugely impressed. Those of our wedding party who stayed on site over the weekend thoroughly enjoyed the old style cottages and modern Hayloft apartment. The Estate really is a hidden gem in Co. Waterford.
The walled garden was the perfect location for our drinks reception and provided us with a beautiful backdrop for our wedding photos. Even though the wedding took place in December, the fire-pit and sheltered grounds allowed us to comfortably enjoy the garden in the evening sun. The garden room was laid out to accommodate our 25 guests, with plenty of space for movement. We would both absolutely recommend Woodhouse Estate as a wedding venue and have very fond memories of our weekend spent there.

SPECIAL OCCASIONS & FAMILY GATHERINGS

The Walled Garden is the perfect venue for any special occasion, anniversary, birthday or family reunion. With accommodation on site your group can enjoy getting away from reality to spend quality time with family and friends.

CORPORATE EVENTS

Look no further for a venue for a corporate dinner or team building session as we can provide space for meetings, workshops, and presentations.

CHARITY EVENTS, COMMUNITY & TEA PARTIES

As well as hiring the Walled Garden for private events Woodhouse has also hosted events for charity e.g. summer tea parties in the Garden Room.  Christmas parties and Easter Egg hunts for the local schools and Christmas concerts in the Garden Room.

The Walled Garden Restoration

Walled Gardens in the stately homes of Ireland were the source of fresh vegetables, fruit and flowers for the family as well as for the staff that were employed on the estate.  In many cases excess food was also sold at local markets.  These gardens were built with high walls of about 3.5 metres to keep out animals and other unwanted visitors and also avoid frost and wind while capturing the heat from the sun for better growth.  In the case of Woodhouse the walled garden has been a vital part of the estate for several hundred years.

Unfortunately, the Woodhouse walled garden – which is approximately one and a half acres in size – had not been used for growing food for over 40 years and, as a result, it had deteriorated badly.  Many of the walls had collapsed and had not been repaired.  When Woodhouse changed hands in 2012 a project was undertaken to bring the walled garden back to its former glory.

The project to rebuild the walls was started on July 12th, 2013.  The original completion estimate was, that due to its terrible condition (see photos), it would take over a year to complete.  However, the work progressed well and the walls of the main garden were completed in less than six months with the majority of the orchard wall completed in less than a year.

The task was undertaken by eight stonemasons supported by three labourers. Leading the project was P.J. (Paddy) Kiely who had a major role in the restoration of other parts of the Woodhouse estate.

Due to the serious deterioration of the vast majority of the walls, Paddy, assisted by one of his workers, Declan O’Brien, had to break down much of the wall that hadn’t collapsed because it was deemed unsafe.  The age of the walls as well as the relatively poor quality of the mortar used in years past, was the main reason for the deterioration.  Paddy and Declan salvaged those bricks and stones that were still useful for the stonemasons that were working behind them.

The outer wall was built with stone but the inner wall was built with brick.  This brick allowed the South facing wall to maximize and retain the heat from the sun.  Most of that wall had to be totally rebuilt with new material and an effort was made to source good bricks to match the existing wall that hadn’t fallen.

 

Paddy was unable to find salvaged bricks for all of the 450 metres of wall but he managed to source comparable bricks from factories in Yorkshire in England.  One type of brick was called ‘Coalflec’ and the other was called ‘Garden Wall’.  These bricks were blended with bricks from the original wall to give the nice effect of looking like the wall that had been built hundreds of years ago.  Interestingly the original bricks used to build the walls in centuries past also came by ship from England and were recycled brick at that time

The walls that were made of stone were originally built with local blue stone.  This blue colour was caused by the copper element in the local stone on the Copper Coast of Ireland.  The quarry adjacent to Woodhouse closed some years ago but after much searching Paddy was able to find the right stone from Kent’s quarry in Kilmacow in Waterford.  They eventually supplied hundreds of tonnes of stone for numerous projects at Woodhouse over the years of the renovation project.

Today the Walled Garden and Orchard have a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and many types of flowers and, thanks to Paddy Kiely and his excellent team of skilled workmen, has developed in a place of beauty in tune with nature as it was planned when originally built.

Information kindly provided buy P J Kiely Construction Kinckeylan Lemybrien Co Waterford.

Tone of Clay
4000
Types of Flowers
0
Meters of brick
2000
Man hours
4000
Great Idea
-39