Mount Stewart and Grey Abbey feature in Best Bits of County Down, Ireland
20th January 2022
Copyright - Best Bits of County Down, Ireland. Full article can be found on the Best Bits Worldwide website.
This fantastic article in Best Bits Worldwide showcases some of our amazing attractions in Ards and North Down. Read on for an exerpt and hear about her travels to Mount Stewart and Grey Abbey...
"Having touched down at Belfast Airport at 8am that morning, we hardly took any time to drop our bags off at the Culloden Estate, our home for the next two nights, before heading out to explore County Down, Northern Ireland.
Most people know County Down for its most famous golf course, the Royal County Down, voted number one layout in the world by Golf Digest. There is so much more to see, so leave the clubs at home, and take time to explore our Best Bits.
Mount Stewart
Driving along the gorgeous Strangford Lough, only 25 minutes from the Culloden and central Belfast, you find yourself at one the prettiest houses in Northern Ireland – Mount Stewart, former home to the Marquesses of Londonderry.
The gardens were the pride of Edith, the Marchioness, and they remain just the way she designed them in the 1920’s. As we were visiting, they were just starting to bloom, but still even at the end of March, they were gorgeous.
Lady Edith wasn’t just interested in creating only formal gardens, although the sunken garden is divine, she laid out an Italianate garden, created floral terraces and increased the size of the lake.
Inside the house, it feels as if the Londonderry family has just gone out for a stroll. Having opened after a three-year facelift, everything gleams. The magnificent double height entrance hall invites you in to discover the rest of the goodies inside.
From the grand doors of the hall, you wind your way around the rest of the house. A portrait of our hostess, Lady Edith, in her WWI role as Colonel-in-Chief of the Women’s Volunteer Reserve, sits outside the dining room. During the war, she opened Mount Stewart as an Officers’ Hospital. She also had time to make potpourri-filled baskets to sell to her wealthy lady friends at exorbitant prices to aid the war effort.
My favorite bit of the house had to be the faux bookshelf shutters in the Library. Look closely and you find that, when shut, the Library appears to have twice as many books.
A highlight of the house has to be the largest Stubbs painting on canvas, although this painting has a bit of a turbulent history. Hambletonian, the subject of the painting only lost one race in his entire career. His owner, Sir Henry Vane-Tempest commissioned Stubbs to do the portrait, but upon delivery hated it so much that he refused to pay for it, leading Stubbs to sue him. Finally they settled, and the painting hangs at Mount Stewart when his daughter became the wife of the 3rd Marquess.
Grey Abbey
It’s a short ride from the 1920’s to the 1190’s. In about 5 minutes by car, you are at Grey Abbey, the remains of a Cistercian church and one of the best examples of Anglo-Norman architecture in Northern Ireland. It was quite spooky walking around the ruins as we were alone and the wind picked up while we moved around the ruins. It seemed like good time to get in our car and continue on.
In the little town adjacent to the church, make sure to stop and explore some of the more than 10 antique stores. The Cypriot is sure he found the “lost” Ole Schwalbe, the 1950’s Danish painter. All this shopping made us a bit peckish and we headed down to Portaferry – to be ported by ferry – to Strangford where our lunch was waiting."
Full article can be found on the Best Bits Worldwide website.
