Crom Walled Garden

I'm in the midst of a new manuscript, The Glass House. The main character, Caitlin, has inherited her grand-parents property, near the village of Sion Mills, and their love of gardening. On clearing a wild corner of the walled garden, on the property, she discovers a door that leads to a dilipadated Victorian Glass House. With the help of local handy-man, Jack, she restores it so that it becomes the centre of her burgeoning horticultural business. The Glass House contains other themes that run through the story.

I had already drafted the second chapter, in which Caitlin's glass house is first described but I was thrilled when I discovered the walled garden and derelict glass house at Crom Castle. I'm grateful to the staff member who told me about it. This glass house, like Caitlin's, is in a very sorry state. It doesn't exactly match my vision or description but does show the remains of pipes, brick walls and benches. It's a ghost of the beautiful and functional building it must once have been. The National Trust staff also told me when they cleared some of the wall and area round the glass house last year, they revealed marks along the wall. These show where other houses and structures once stood. In the barn building that the Trust use at Crom, there is an information centre. Within it they have an excellent plan of the walled garden from early in the 1900's, which includes the walled, circular rhododendron pool at the centre of it. Today only one corner of the garden is in use as allotments.

National Trust: Crom
Discover NI: Crom
http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/enchanting-walled-garden-of-crom.html