Such a pity we don’t have the smelling internet yet. This Rhododendron has one of the most fabulous perfumes you can imagine! It’s Rhododendron ‘Lady Alice Fitzwilliams’, very similar to Rhododendron fragrantissimum.
Lovely day out on Garinish Island! The view from the top where the Martello Tower is towards Sugar Loaf Mountain.
The eagles are around…
The changes which we referred to in the last blog post lead to a new very special and unusual asset in Glengarriff harbour: a lovely and professionally designed museum. We had the pleasure to be shown around Bryce House by Mary Heffernan, the talented curator, who brought the neglected house back to life. It was once the home of Violet Bryce and her son Roland, and of Murdo Mackenzie, their passionate head gardener and Margaret Sullivan, the former maid and last inhabitant of the island (till 1998).
Can you see, the Casita is now open, the vista from the lawn through to the Medici House is perfect.
And from the Medici House to the gate of the Walled Garden it is even better (with better light).
Let’s go through the Walled Garden and have a look at the “new” place. Wow, the gate is wide open!!! What a new sight!
And what a beauty of a building, even completely accessible to wheel chairs! According to Murdo Mackenzie Violet took up residence on Garnish Island after her husband John Annan Bryce’s death (25th June 1923), and continued to develop it as far as her income would permit. The Irish Independent from the 13th September 1923 wrote: “Mrs. Annan Bryce, widow of Mr. Annan Bryce, M.P., brother of the late Viscount Bryce, is at her beautiful home at Glengariffe, where she intends to live permanently. She is, however, going to London this week to make preparations for the auctions at her house in Bryanston Square. She is selling the house with its contents, which include curios and trophies of travel in all parts of the world.”
You feel welcome, as if Maggie, the former maid, will just come and invite you to have a seat! Lovely photographs are all around the place, paintings of persons and places which were dear to the Bryces. Most of the family’s precious belongings were sold after John Annan’s death, The Evening Standard from the 5th November 1923 gives an impression:
“A large number of art connoisseurs and society people assembled to-day at 35, Bryanston Square where Messrs. Wallrock and Co. put up for public auction the fine art collection of the late Mr. J. Annan Bryce, who was the brother of Lord Bryce, and for many years a member of Parliament. The collection represented upwards of half a century’s travel at home and abroad. Mr. Bryce spent many years in Burma and other Eastern countries, and secured many fine bronzes and metal work specimens. Representative pictures of the Italian school, specimens of rare old furniture, persian carpets, porcelain, and silver plate, were also included in the collection. The sale opened to-day with brisk bidding for English and foreign furniture, and will be resumed each day for a week.”
“Yesterday some 230 lots were offered including the contents of the bedrooms and boudoir and some ornamental items. Among the ornamental items offered was an old Burmese shrine of lacquered and gilt wood, in the form of a temple, standing over 6 ft. in height and 3 ft. in width. This went for £5. A Chinese bronzed vase, 3 ft. 10 in. in height, chases in relief with figures and trees, fetched no more than 4 1/2 guineas, while a Burmese carved wood figure, nearly 4 ft. in height and of fine design went for 2 guineas.”
You can walk around the house and to the patio with a magnificent view towards the Eccles Hotel, where Violet once ran the “Queen Alexandra’s Home of Rest for Invalided Officers” (from 1916). Around that time (16th May 1916) Roland Bryce wrote to his uncle James Bryce: “Thank you for your parting gift; depressing weather during the last week; [in Ireland] it looks very much as if the old English regime has come to an end for ever, but it is a very strange end.”
This was Roland’s study. In the new museum his room is dedicated to James Bryce, who was a dear mentor to Roland and who introduced him into the world of politics. There are many books written by James Bryce (b 10 May 1838 in Belfast, d 22 January 1922 at Sidmouth, Devon).
Roland’s bedroom was also the guest room for many of the celebrities who stayed on Garinish Island, like most presidents of Ireland, Agatha Christie, Pamela Travers (author of Mary Poppins books), the famous artist George Russell (AE) and many more.
His mother’s bedroom was also very cozy. Like all the other rooms the original wall papers were reprinted (or like in this case a very similar wall paper like the original was used). She was a keen embroiderer, there is photographic proof that this gorgeous bed spread was hand made by herself.
Murdo Mackenzie’s bedroom was smaller and slightly more spartanic (although he had this quite feminine wallpaper!). He had read an advertisement in ‘The Gardener’s Chronicle’ saying: “Scottish Head Gardener Wanted. S.W. Ireland – Apply Eccles Hotel, Glengarriff”. On the 28th October 1928 arrived at the island, after a four day journey from Scotland, Morayshire, 20 miles west of Inverness). He remained at Garinish Island, even after his official retirement, he always had a hoe in his hand, until his last illness in January, 1983 ( b. 13th February 1896, d. 12th January 1983).
The dining table in the first floor looks as if dinner will be served in a few minutes! The museum will remain open until the end of October 2015, but there are only two guided tours per day with only 10 persons per tour permitted.
Although the people of Glengarriff are not officially being informed about what’s happening on Garinish Island they can watch busy activities on Ilnacullin. Last year saw the felling of many trees in the Walled Garden, parts of which now look different: brighter and not any more jungle-like.
Violet Bryce’s Cottage, the old Sullivan’s cottage and the East Pier are really being prepared for a new lease of life. According to rumours the “Museum” will be opened in July. The entrance area is digged up, heavy vehicles are busy changing the small path to the lovely old cottage.
Lots of small yews were planted between old but quite bare yews on the Southern side of the pond area. The ancient sarcophagus in the Walled Garden disappeared a good while ago, but it might return to its old place, as there was a roof built for it. Even the loose banister in the Martello Tower was fixed over the winter. The winter 2013/2014 had brought back the “hats” for some of the mushrooms on the way to the Temple and lots of the steps to the Temple and to the Martello Tower were bedded in concrete. Well done! But Leo the ancient lion who had lost his face in the winter’s frost of 2010 didn’t return so far. And the exhibition in the Casita is still (again) dark, the back part isn’t accessible.
The once sparkling lily pond is still muddy and brown. For how many years wasn’t it cleaned??? Such a shame! Violet Bryce wrote the following description for the magazine Gardening Illustrated in January 1929: “This lily pond is lined with small blue-green tiles to give the illusion of sea water, and round the edges in the water are pots raised on bricks of Iris kaempferi, tiny Bulruhes and Reed of various kinds. This Lily pond contains myriads of goldfish, and in the early morning the brilliant many colored king-fisher is to be seen darting over the pond.” It would be really great to see the water blue again this year, just a little scrub of the bottom and the lower walls would do it (and maybe a bit more of water…)
Bernard Harrington remembers in ‘A History of Glengarriff’*:
I have been led to believe that Glengarriff, Killarney and Bundoran are the three oldest tourist resorts in Ireland. From the day when business people, retired people and honeymooners used to come and stay for a week, there have been some enormous changes in patterns of holidaying. …
When I was a boy, the traditional family run Hotel was the heart and soul of the Tourist Industry. Some of our hotels were known and respected for their food and hospitality all over the British Isles, the Continent and the ‘States. They were at their peak in the late ’40s and early ’50s – remember “Rationing was still enforced in England but you got plenty of food in Glengarriff” was the saying. …
The Eccles was owned by the McDonnell family and some very famous people stayed there. The story goes that George Bernard Shaw stayed there in 1923 and he used to go daily to visit Garnish Island, where apparently he got inspiration for writing his famous play “St. Joan”. On the day he was leaving Garnish, Lady Bryce came to the slip way to say goodbye. “Goodbye Shaw” she said “I hope me meet in Heaven”. He looked at her and said “Madam, are we not already?”
The old postcard shows George Bernard Shaw posing between Homer and the young 
Nero at the Sunken Garden (‘Italian Garden’) on Garinish Island – or rather Ilnacullin as Violet Bryce wanted her Heaven to be named. Shaw was probably inspired by the Bryce’s daughter Marjory, who led a procession on horseback dressed as Joan of Arc at the Women’s Coronation Procession in London in the year 1911. She led some fourty thousand women from almost thirty suffrage organisations whose members celebrated Joan as a perfect symbol to lead women in their appeal for formal admission into the councils of the nation. Marjory’s father Annan Bryce was strongly against suffrage.
*In the Bantry Anthology “It Might Have Been But Yesterday” by GP Denis Cotter
Parts of the lovely Happy Valley look like that.
Did you know garinish island is the property of the people of the republic of ireland? It´s a fine theory at least. The people are represented by a crowd of public servants who treat public property as if it was their own private business. Said the well-known local glengarriff gentleman: “They run the place like north korea.”
Have there been any news published about the use of a 2,4 million euro public funding of projects on garinish island after the summer of 2011? Any details in 2012? Any news about rejuvenating and replanting on the island for future generations? We may have missed it.
The insular, secretive and reclusive manciples of garinish island keep it all under their hat — in the same manner they close off more than 40 percent of the island for visitors, in the same manner they let the griselinia take over the island, in the same manner they surrender unique vistas to the growth, in the same manner they slumber away the future of glengarriff´s greatest asset ever — while relentlessly raking the flowerbeds from 9 to 5.
Why this? Let´s talk to the kims and ask them for news: 027 63040
Long gone are the days when laughing children and happy adults were enjoying summer days at the bathing box near the East Pier on Garinish Island. On the right photograph from 1912 later owner Roland Bryce is sitting on the first step of the wooden ladder, his sister Margery (middle of the ladder) is looking into the camera. She became an actress who mainly performed in London. Recently a nice photograph with her portait was published and is being sold as a notecard (click).
Now the bathing box is a deserted and dark spot reminding of times past when the island was loved and tendered by it`s gardeners and owners.
Around some paths though there is a magnificent display of colours.
Even when the sky is grey the azaleas can be admired from far away. Some are highly fragrant and attract amazed visitors like hungry bees…
…though springtime has been more than cold so far.
Has anybody ever noticed the tiny heart shaped leaves of Myrtus obcordata (on the way to the Casita)?
Garinish Island opened very late this year. So missed the blooms of some of the most marvellous camellias. But the lovely Michelia doltsopa (new name Magnolia doltsopa) is in full flower.
The scent of the ivory whitish blooms depends on the stage of opening of the buds, at it’s height it is clearly lemony with a hint of vanilla and clove, really mouth watering.
garinish island | glengarriff 