A Day Out With Kids To Mount Congreve Gardens, Waterford, Ireland

We're always looking for beautiful and family-friendly days out around Ireland and last weekend we struck gold with a visit to Mount Congreve Gardens. This was our first time ever visiting the gardens and it's safe to say we'll be back. A day out with kids to Mount Congreve Gardens in Waterford is most definitely worth the trip!

I pre-booked online and it cost €20 for the four of us to visit. We drove the 1 and half hours from Cork to the gardens and the drive itself is one of beauty - the boys loved looking out the window at the views overlooking Dungarvan.

Mount Congreve Gardens are one of the most stunning gardens we've ever been to. There are so many different walks and species of plants and flowers to look at - it's a photographers dream! There's lost of places for the kids to explore and our boys loved it.

One of the highlights for them was watching the train from the nearby Waterford and Suir Valley Railway go by from an oval window in the middle of a wall covered in climbing roses - it was like something from The Secret Garden.

It took us a total of 2 and half hours to go around the gardens - I'm sure we must have missed some parts along the way too because they were huge! One of the highlights for me was sitting at the summerhouse and looking out onto the large manor house within the estate. It was just so peaceful and relaxing and I could have sat there all day if I'm honest!

There's a café at the entrance of the gardens where you can stop for a bite to eat or a drink, but if you bring your own picnic, there's lots of gorgeous places where you could sit and enjoy it around the gardens. There's plenty of large grassy areas for the kids to run about and enjoy themselves too.

Another highlight for me was the patch of wildflowers within the walled garden. I love wildflowers and this mix was so pretty in front of a little house with a red door. It really stood out to me.

One of the most famous areas of Mount Congreve Gardens is the Wisteria Walk which is right at the entrance of the gardens. Sadly, we arrived too late for the wisteria and the peonies to be still blooming, but there was lots of lavender and it was still beautiful. I'd return next spring to see it at it's finest.

There's so much to see and explore in Mount Congreve Gardens and each new part brings something beautiful. The walled garden was definitely my favourite.

It's also a photographers (or just people who like to take beautiful snaps!) dream as there's so many perfect photo opportunity points among the gardens.

The boys had a fab time during our visit. I always worried that visits to gardens and places Jacek and I love might not be very interesting to the boys, but Mount Congreve Gardens literally had something to take their interest at ever corner. They also loved having a picnic and getting an ice-cream from the café after our walk around the gardens. It really is the simple things that the kids enjoy the most.

The only part of the gardens I could see that wasn't open was the Pagoda. I'm not sure why but perhaps the path down to it wasn't suitable for social distancing? You still get a great view of it from this bridge though and it's the wall behind here that has the oval shaped lookout window pictured above.

I'd highly recommend a visit to Mount Congreve Gardens for a family day out. There's lots to see, plenty of space for the kids to run and explore and we loved our visit there. We'll definitely be back next year for all the spring blooms.

For more beautiful places to visit as family around Ireland check out our past travels and adventures.

Here's some more snaps from our visit to Mount Congreve Gardens, just in case you need even more of an excuse to visit.