Today will be our final day here in Ireland, as tomorrow our plane leaves to take us back home. We had a nice day, spent at the lovely Hillsborough Castle. This was defiantly one of my favorite places to visit, aside from Blarney Castle and Giant’s Causeway. Hillsborough Castle has a neat history, as it was built in the 1770’s, and sold to the British government in the early 1900s. Along the lines, if I remember right, this happened in the 1800’s, a worker went to the roof to lower the flag to half mast and in doing so, figured he’d take a small break where he then smoked. He put out the cigarette on top of the roof, and then it caught fire, destroying most of the roof of Hillsborough Castle. It was then that more formal and tall ceilings were added, as before they were simply regular ceilings that you might find in anybody’s house. Below, you’ll find a picture of the outside of Hillsborough Castle from the garden side.

This castle is situated on a one hundred acre plot of land, and in that, it has a large and gorgeous garden to explore. There was beautiful flowers and waterways, lots of fun plants as well.

Below is a cool find that we found whilst exploring the gardens.

One of the other neat things I found out was that all the men in the family were named Arthur. Imagine being named Arthur and having several brothers with the same name, you’d never know who was being called!

Something else interesting that I saw was the oldest painting in the home. It was painted five hundred years ago and one an 800 year old slab of wood! I was shocked when I found that out, as it looked as though it could’ve been painted yesterday!

Above, you’ll see the otter statue we found in the stream in the Lost Gardens of Hillsborough Castle.

Benjamin Franklin was the first American to visit the castle, and pineapples were quite the big deal there. So big, in fact, that they became a status symbol, that those who possessed one were of wealth and high social standing. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, but conquistadors brought them back to Ireland and England, and they were loved so much that ways of growing the pineapple were cultivated in England and Ireland. They fashioned a sort of green house for them, with a heated wall to keep them warm. Did you know people even rented pineapples for large dinners and parties? And to buy a pineapple was quite the financial endeavor!

Above is more of the gardens at Hillsborough.

Something pretty neat is that many members of the Royal Family have stayed at Hillsborough Castle. In fact, Princess Anne just visited on Wednesday. She also stopped in to the World Trial for a visit, and I really wish we crossed paths when she was there!

Peace talks have also happened at Hillsborough, so it really does have a wonderfully neat history.

I’m sad this trip has come to a closure, but so grateful for the wonderful experience it has been! Below, I’ll add some more pictures of Hillsborough Castle and the gardens. Sadly we weren’t allowed to take pictures of the inside of the home, but I did take lots of outside pictures!