Started by Richard Grove Annesley, in the grounds of a house near Fermoy dating from the early eighteenth century.
Included were plants from China introduced by E.H. Wilson and from New Zealand by Captain Dorrien Smith of Tresco Abbey in the Scilly Isles.
Notable species include Haplocartha scaposa introduced from South Africa by Beamish, together with the rare Mexican White Pine (Pinus ayacahuite), the tallest in Ireland and Britain.
Noted for its collection of 'Desfontainea spinosa',[citation needed] the house and its grounds were acquired by a religious order of nuns.
[6][7] In the early 19th century, Richard Boyle, 4th Earl of Shannon laid out a garden of camellias and a pinetum based on a design by Fraser.
In 1822, the garden was described (in Power's 1845 Botanist's guide to the County of Cork) as having approximately six acres and a glasshouse in a walled enclosure of 1-acre (4,000 m2).
This garden contains a mixture of native and exotic planting, including 'The Ho Che Min Trail'.
Hugh Smith-Barry (1816–57) reclaimed tidal margins from the sea and planted shelter-belts of fir, establishing a 4-acre (16,000 m2) fruit garden and 15-acre (61,000 m2) arboretum.
His son Lord Barrymore with his gardener William Osborne continued with the planting of exotics including Nordmann Fir (Abies nordmanniana) from the Caucasus in 1838.
The house, arboretum and gardens are now managed by a trust, the remainder of the island being divided between a wildlife park and a golf course.
[2] Myrtle Grove was the home of Sir Walter Raleigh, Mayor of Youghal (1588-9), reputedly where the potato was introduced to Europe.
Laid out by the Earl of Cork c1612-14, these gardens are located besides the Raleigh house at Myrtle Grove and consist of two terraces 160 yards (150 m) long cut into the hillside overlooking the town.