This year, Snowdrop Week in Altamont runs from Monday 9th February – Saturday 14th February. Altamont has a unique collection of snowdrops and it is one of the largest collections in Ireland. It was started about 30 years ago by Mrs Corona North, former owner of the gardens, and there are over 100 named snowdrop varieties in the collection. Altamont has formal and informal gardens on a 100 acre estate. Planted by succeeding generations of owner-gardeners, it also contains a collection of trees dating from 1750. Many of the native trees in the avenues were planted in the eighteenth century while the exotics date from the nineteenth century.
We will leave Nassau Street in Dublin at 10.45am by private coach and drive to Tullow, which is about 90km from Dublin. The journey will take about 1hour 20 minutes, depending on traffic.
We travel to the Mount Wolseley Hotel in Tullow where we will have a soup and sandwich lunch. After lunch, we get back on the coach for a 15 minute drive to Altamont Gardens.
We have booked a guided tour of the gardens for 2pm. The tour will focus on the snowdrop collection but will also include the winter flowering shrubs and bulbs. The tour will take approximately one hour.
You will then have about an hour’s free time to visit the gardens yourself.
We return to the coach at 4pm and depart for Dublin about 4.15pm. We should get back to Dublin about 5.45pm, depending on traffic.
What the ticket includes
The cost of a ticket for TRA members is €24. A member may have one non-member accompany them on the tour, and in this case, the cost of the ticket for the non-member is €28 (as the Association is providing a small subsidy for members). Included in the ticket price are
Transport by private coach
Soup and sandwich lunch at Mount Wolseley Hotel, Tullow
Guided tour of Altamont Gardens
Itinerary – Wednesday 11th February 2015
10.45 Depart Dublin (Morton’s Coach – Nassau Street outside Kilkenny Design
12.15 Arrive Mount Wolseley Hotel, Tullow
12.30- 1.30 Lunch in Mount Wolseley
Depart 1.30 Drive 8km to Altamont
2pm Guided tour of Altamont Garden focussing on the Snowdrop Collection but also looking at winter flowering shrubs and bulbs
3-4pm Free time to visit the gardens
4pm Return to coach
4.15pm Depart for Dublin
5.45pm Arrive Dublin/ Nassau Street (depending on traffic)
Booking a ticket
As we need to confirm bookings with the coach company and the hotel, please make your booking by Friday 30th January 2015.
Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis. Please also note that if we do not have a minimum of 30 bookings, the tour will not be offered as this number is required to meet costs.