A veritable treasure trove of rare trees, ancient and exotic, has been revealed in the first phase of restoration work this year on the magnificent but derelict Victorian gardens at Woodstock in Inistioge, Co Kilkenny.
A consultant arboriculturist involved in the project has said the importance of the trees on the estate ranks them in the league of national monuments.
"Hail, old patrician trees, so great and good!" wrote the 17th-century poet, Abraham Cowley, and a tour of Woodstock in the company of an expert conveys just how truly patrician are many of its venerable trees.
The restoration project, led by Kilkenny County Council, has already begun to quantify the enormous asset which the restored gardens will constitute for Kilkenny and the nation.
The gardens, mostly created in the 18th century by Lady Louisa Tighe, had lain abandoned and neglected for many years following the burning of the estate house in 1922.
Extensive clearance of vegetation during the past six months, in much the same manner as a major archaeological dig, has revealed the grand scale and elegant patterns of these once highly formal gardens.
The removal of scrub, ivy, laurel and rhododendron has exposed, for example, a splendid "silver fir avenue", more than a quarter of a mile long, delineated by two vast rows of noble firs. "When opened up, this should be the most spectacular of all the features of the gardens," says Michael Tennyson, of the Inistioge Heritage Society, who is a member of the steering committee of the restoration project.
Extensive work has also been carried out on a unique monkey puzzle walk. The seeds, which lie scattered around the base of the monkey puzzles, are edible, the kernels resemble brazil nuts, and they may have been carried initially to Ireland on board ships as food for sailors.
Prominent on the edge of the woods are two stately Wellingtonias, almost 40 metres tall. These trees can grow to an astonishing 100 metres in their native North America.
Nearby is an ancient gnarled sequoia, the tallest tree in the park at 41.5 metres.
It also has the widest girth of any tree in Ireland, being 7.65 metres in circumference at its base.
A 40-stemmed Sawarra cypress probably dates back to the early 1800s. Its branches have descended to the ground, rooted and grown up as secondary stems around the mother tree in the centre. This is believed to be the best example of such layering anywhere outside the tree's native Japan, and is ranked by experts as extremely important.
There is a Himalayan hemlock, Tsuga dumosa, which is rated as the second-finest in Britain and Ireland in terms of its height. On the smaller scale, there is an orange bark myrtle, a little aromatic which self-seeds in Woodstock.
Another curiosity is a Chilean lantern tree, which flowers with fabulous red lantern-like blooms in May and June. A North American thuja is an example of a species whose timber was utilised by Indian tribes to make totem poles because it contains a natural fungicide and is very durable.
A Mexican pine, Pinus gordonia, is thought to be extremely rare, and a Japanese thuja is one of the most important trees in the gardens.
Other species include fine examples of weeping beech, Spanish chestnut, evergreen oak, cedar of Lebanon, ancient yews and Japanese cedar.
Rarities include a Hartweg's pine and a bladdernut tree.
Some of these are "champion trees", specimens regarded as the finest of their species to be found in Europe. A comprehensive survey is being completed by Michael Lear, an expert from the arboretum in Castlewellan, Co Down, who is also supervising the tree preservation work of a team of tree surgeons.
The demesne is also rich in flora and fauna. There are many red squirrels and at least two pine martens. The head gardener, John Delaney, has seen them clambering in the canopies of the monkey puzzles.
Eventually, a cultivation tunnel will be installed. "We'll be taking cuttings of all the trees and growing them on," says Clare Murphy, landscape architect with Kilkenny County Council.
The cumulative age of the great trees is awe-inspiring. The rings counted on a beech felled because it had a critical disease indicated it was about 210 years old.
Michael Tennyson says it is believed the area has been continuous woodland since the end of the Ice Age. The extent of the Woodstock tree heritage is still being assessed. "A lot of the material is only being collated now, and we're just starting to realise what is there," he says.
A complex system of water and irrigation has been revealed, as well as the remains of important architectural features including extensive glasshouses, a conservatory, a steam bath house and a rockery which is considered to be one of the finest examples of its type in the country.
The restoration project is the result of a multiple environmental partnership between the county council, Coillte, the Tighe estate, the Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Programme, Inistioge Heritage Society, FAS and the local community.
It is an expensive undertaking: an estimated £650,000 will be expended this year. Grant funding has been provided by Bord Failte under the EU Operational Programme for Tourism, with matching funding provided by the county council.
The financial burden on the council will be onerous, and Cllr Andy Cotterell says they are keen to find a major sponsor for the project.
Undoubtedly, however, the re stored gardens will be an invaluable part of the tourism infrastructure in Kilkenny and a major amenity and educational resource.