Hunting Brook Gardens

A riot of colour in gardens surrounding old farmstead buildings.

Grand Palladian mansion built 1741-51 to a design by Cassells, who also designed Powerscourt. It was the Leeson family pile for almost 200 years then passed to Sir Alfred Beit, of the de Beers diamond mining company. He inherited his uncle's huge big-name art collection and installed it here, where it suffered from serial robbery: by the IRA in 1974, by a Loyalist gang in 1984, then by other gangs in 2001 and 2002. Remarkably, most of these hauls were recovered. Some of the collection has been donated to the National Gallery, with others loaned in return.