Swans at Mount Stewart

I would like to claim that today’s photos come from my own home, but I was just really visiting Mount Stewart, the grand 19th century mansion where my husband and I held our wedding reception many years ago.

Mount Stewart is located on the western side of the Ards Peninsula, in County Down, Northern Ireland.  As well as the house, there are extensive gardens and a lake.  This couple posed for photographs beside the lake, just as my husband and I did.  I hope we looked happier.

Mount Stewart is owned by the National Trust, a charity which does great work in the United Kingdom, protecting land and historic buildings and opening them to the public.  After a three year restoration project, the house at Mount Stewart re-opened to the public on 20 April 2015.  You can read more about that project by clicking on this link, and I look forward to seeing the house later this year, but on this visit I was distracted by the swans.

These two more adventurous cygnets were just climbing out of the lake where they had been swimming with their father.

The formal gardens are as beautiful as ever.

The National Trust has recently bought the surrounding farmland, increasing the area managed by the Trust at Mount Stewart from 100 acres to 1000 acres.  I’m intrigued to see how they use the additional land, and how the walled garden and dairy develop over the next few years.

If you want to see even more photos of Mount Stewart, click here .  I have another blog called Townlands of Ulster.  Luckily for me, Mount Stewart is a townland, so I had an excuse to keep snapping the cygnets and the gardens.