A Brief History of our Tree Nursery

The Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland Tree Nursery is located at the beautiful historic Clandeboye Estate. We are situated near Bangor, in one of the country's oldest walled gardens, surrounded by Northern Ireland's largest broad-leaved woodland. The estate is home to a wide range of wildlife including sparrow hawks, buzzards, short-eared owls, red squirrels, and stoats. Last year we spotted the first red kite seen here in forty years and three years ago the first osprey, ever, fished for a few weeks on one of the lakes. Some of these species are so rare in Northern Ireland that sightings of them on the estate are often a first for many visitors. My own personal firsts here were my first Northern Ireland red squirrel, the common newt, and the wood wasp. If you are lucky when you visit the estate, you may see small herds of fallow deer roaming free.

Early beginnings

The walled garden appeared on maps as early as 1832. In the past the garden was used to grow fruit, vegetables and flowers to supply the nearby "big house". This garden, similar to many in Ireland and Great Britain, created valuable employment in the area. In later years the surplus fruit, vegetables and flowers were sold, at St. George's Market in Belfast, once a month. It was also possible for the public to buy produce once a week from the garden gate.

Like many such gardens around the country, this one became unviable and in 1970, a firm named Plunketts of Newtownards started using the whole garden for the growing of daffodil bulbs. Survivors of those plants are still enjoyed by the workers in the tree nursery today. When Plunketts ceased operation here, half of the nursery was used for the rearing of pheasants. The other half, more or less, returned to nature.

Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland comes to Clandeboye

It was 1985 when we became involved in the estate. Lord and Lady Dufferin very kindly made the walled garden available to the organisation for the growing and supplying of native trees. Few could have foreseen the incredible results of that generous decision. Working with John McClean, our Regional Director at that time, the Dufferins helped create an environmental legacy for us all.

When the first Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland staff arrived, they saw beautiful old stone buildings that had become a little dilapidated, an infrastructure in need of attention and a jungle of bramble, thistles, docks and all the other difficult weeds we know so well.

What appeared to be an old stable was cleared of 20cm of very old horse manure and became the volunteers' tea room. An old rifle rack became the holder for all our tools at that time - one spade, one fork, one mattock and one crowbar. Grapes still grew in the old glass house and quenched our thirst many times in the first few years. Eventually the glass house became too dangerous and had to be dismantled.

Changes in the garden

Thousands of hours of work, carried out by volunteers, have gone into making the tree nursery what it is today. The evolution of the nursery has provided education and inspiration for local volunteers as well as those who have come to us from many parts of the world. In addition to the horticultural side of things, the continuous development of the infrastructure has provided learning and personal growth experiences for us all.

Now the nursery is at an exciting stage poised between fairly primitive methods and more modern operations. For some of us older folk it is bittersweet to see old labour-intensive ways disappearing, for these tasks were very bonding. Yet we are excited to be moving toward vastly improved productivity. We are proud of the organisation's investment in the nursery and we are encouraged by the support of all our staff and volunteers, as we develop the best ways to collect, store, germinate, and grow native trees.

Now known as the Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland Tree Nursery, this ancient walled garden rings with the sound of new activity as seeds from Northern Ireland's remaining ancient woodlands are brought here to be grown with the goal of regenerating our native woods with trees of local provenance.