Altamont Gardens are celebrating the 101st birthday of Corona North
TO CELEBRATE CORONA NORTH’S 101ST BIRTHDAY ON THE 7TH JULY
GUIDED TOURS AVAILABLE
@ 12 NOON AND 3PM

Robert Miller from Altamont Plant Sales in Altamont Gardens will be available on Friday 7th of July to give tours of the Corona North commemorative border, to mark the occasion of Corona’ 101st birthday.

Corona North

CORONA NORTH turned the wilderness she inherited at Altamont, Co Carlow, into one of the great gardens of Europe. Her single-minded passion has evoked comparison – with certain qualifications – with Scarlett O’Hara’s at Tara.

When, in 1983, Isobel Lecky- Watson died at the age of 101, she bequeathed Altamont House and 140 acres of beautiful but mostly unserviceable land on the banks of the Slaney to her two daughters, Diana and Corona. Everyone – not least Corona’s husband, Gary, and Diana herself – assumed that the estate would be sold and that the proceeds would ensure a comfortable and leisurely old age for the two sisters.

They had not banked on Corona. A passionate plantswoman, she set about restoring the largely derelict gardens, took the arable land back in hand and, by her own unceasing efforts, contrived to turn Altamont Gardens into one of the best-loved and most-visited gardens in Ireland.