Hillsborough Castle and Gardens has been transformed
both inside and out
Over the past five years, Historic Royal Palaces
have worked with a number of specialist craftspeople
to really elegantly and beautifully restore the castle
on the inside, but also to transform and reimagine
the gardens as well, for visitors to enjoy
The grounds at Hillsborough extend to 98 acres on this site
and then we also look after the grounds of the Fort across the road
so 110 acres in total
You come in first of all to the Walled Garden
and that opens out in front of you
with the beautiful double herbaceous borders
leading up to the pavilion in the centre
This Walled Garden has undergone a total reimagination
The layout is modelled on the original layout
from plans from the beginning of when
the Walled Garden was originally built
There's so much here to see in this four acre space in the Walled Garden
there's such a range of crops from heritage varieties
to the more modern equivalents
It's designed to be both ornamental and productive
so we're producing vegetables and fruit
for use by the Yellow Door café
The chefs come out and harvest it
and a couple of hours later at the very most
it has been served on the plate
you don't get much fresher than that
The rooms within the castle were all represented
particularly the Throne Room and the Drawing Room
We removed each of the pieces of the collection
and then allowed the contractors to come in
whether they were gilders, whether they were
polishing the floors, whether they were painting
Once the rooms had been handed back to us after the representation
it was my duty to actually take each piece of the collection
and reinstall it into the rooms
along with my colleagues from London
We have art here on loan from
the Royal Collection, the Schorr Collection
the Victoria and Albert Museum
National Museums Northern Ireland
really significant pieces of art
For instance the Throne Room, the themes of the art there
look at rule and power and law and justice
We also have the Red Room which has
a very dense cabinet hang
of highly decorative, smaller, intimate pieces of art
To contrast with that we also have
a really interesting collection of contemporary Ulster art
that represents the taste of the Royal Family
including both His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother
who herself was a very avid collector of Irish art
We are introducing a number of particular guided tours
that focus on the art, royal histories and political histories
In addition to the transformation that took place at the castle itself
we have added a brand new Lower Visitor facility
to our offering here at Hillsborough Castle
Within the Lower Visitor centre, we have a brand new restaurant and coffee shop
and a new retail space as well, so it really is
a destination in of itself
And on the upper site we have a new Stable Yard
and tea room and learning space as well
so we work with a number of people from the local community
and they get to come into the Clore Learning facility
which is the first of its kind in Ireland
It's a fantastic resource where we have three learning spaces
where we can not only provide curriculum linked
sessions for schools, from Key Stage 1
right the way through to A-Level
but we also have a space for adult learning, for family learning
We programme regularly family events
in the gardens so that families can discover what
grows here, who lives here in the woods,
in the streams, in the glen
Now we're open for everybody to come and really enjoy the space
we have spent a lot of time and energy
making it a really friendly environment for people to enjoy
The team are a great bunch, so no matter what weather
you come into Hillsborough Castle
it could be raining down, but our guys are all about
making you feel really welcome and at home
within the castle and sharing all of their
magical knowledge that they have about our castle
and about our grounds