Powerscourt is a large estate to the south of Dublin, famous for its extensive gardens and large house. Nella had read about it, and we resolved to visit, signing up on-line (www.dublinsightseeing.ie) for a five-hour bus tour. The estate is advertised as being "20 minutes from Dublin", but the trip took us noticeably longer, as we apparently took the scenic route. "Apparently" because visibility was limited for much of the trip due to inclement weather. But not all of it – we started by heading eastward along the south bank of the Liffey, and we had no problem seeing the river, or Dublin's harbor, which we eventually reached.


From the harbor we turned south, eventually reaching our first scheduled stop, the seaside town of Dún Laoghaire. The town's name is very old, and means "fort of Laoghaire" (Laoghaire MacNeill was a 5th Century high king of Ireland). Later in its history, the town's name was sometimes anglicized to "Dunleary", and is sometimes referred to by this name even now. A large construction project turned the town into a major Irish-British port early in the 19th Century. When King George IV visited in 1821, the town's name was changed to Kingstown, but the name was changed back in 1920, when Ireland was breaking away from Britain. The harbor and marina remain among the largest in Ireland (the marina is actually the largest), but much of the harbor's former traffic has moved to the harbor at Dublin. But ferries occasionally still leave for Britain, and Dún Laoghaire is something of a cruise ship destination, with its scenic piers and many businesses that cater to tourists.

But the businesses didn't get a chance to cater to us, as the rain was coming down in buckets, and nobody left the bus.


Leaving the wet port of Dún Laoghaire, we headed inland and soon reached the wet estate of Powerscourt, where the rain continued its contrary ways. We hustled from the bus into the estate's large house, and were pointed to a cafeteria where we could get lunch. We selected some food, and while there was outdoor seating with lovely views of the gardens, we opted to eat indoors.

The house was renovated from a medieval castle to its present configuration, more or less, from 1731 to 1741, under the ownership of Richard Wingfield, 1st Viscount Powerscourt. Among its famous guests was King George IV, who stayed there on the trip which included his visit to Dún Laoghaire. The estate was purchased in 1961 from the 9th Viscount Powerscourt by the Slazenger family, of sporting goods fame. But the estate found its way back into the Wingfield family in 1962 when Wendy Slazenger married the 10th Viscount, Mervyn Niall Wingfield. In 1974, after a refurbishment of the house for the purpose of opening it to tourists, there was a fire which gutted the house, leaving it an empty shell until it was re-roofed in 1996. It was opened to the public in 1997. The house once had 68 rooms, but only two are open to visitors as they once appeared. Much of the ground and first floors are open as retail space, and as the cafeteria where we had our lunch.




After looking through the accessible rooms of the house, we found ourselves looking from the windows of the ballroom, on the top floor, at the gardens. They looked beautiful but wet.


The gardens assumed their present form late in the 19th Century. The large central area is known as the Italian Garden, but there are also walled gardens, Japanese gardens, a stone tower (with cannons), some ponds and even a pet cemetery. There are plants and trees from many parts of the world, all maintained by a gardening staff headed by Alex Slazenger, who has made the gardens his life's purpose. National Geographic recently voted the Powerscourt Gardens as the third best in the world. This being the case, we determined to go out and look at them, rain or no rain. But as we emerged from the house, the rain miraculously let up. We didn't know how long the rain would be stopped, so we hurried down into the Italian Garden.



In addition to the grass and flowers, there were several sculptures in the Italian Garden.


We continued down the hill to the lake at the bottom, called the Triton Lake. There were sculptures scattered around (and in) the lake also.



Climbing back up the hill, we stopped and looked at a fountain that couldn't really be seen from the top, called the Sundial Fountain.

After doing some shopping in the stores inside the house, we returned to the bus at the time designated for our return journey to Dublin. On the way we saw a poster expressing support for local girl and national heroine Katie Taylor, a boxer who had carried the flag for Ireland in the Olympics that year, and who by this time had won the gold medal in the lightweight division (in her career she won five consecutive world titles, and she went on to box again in the 2016 Olympics, but was defeated in the quarter-finals).

On entering Dublin, we noticed that the city had been newly cleaned by the rain.

After leaving the bus, we noticed that the rain seemed to have let up, and since it was only mid-afternoon of our last full day in Ireland, we decided we should go see something we hadn't seen yet. We settled on Trinity College.