Athlone Castle's Historical Garden
The Historical Garden at Athlone Castle
The Historical Garden at Athlone Castle is like stepping back in time, featuring plants that would have grown in castle gardens during the Middle Ages. Medieval gardens were full of herbs, flowers, fruit trees, and bushes. Many of these plants were edible or used in cooking, while others had medicinal purposes or were used for making dyes and inks.
This variety shows how military castles, like Athlone Castle, were largely self-sufficient. Not only does the garden give us a tantalising glimpse into the past, but it also offers us benefits today. The Wildflower Meadow and planters provide a haven for bees and butterflies a colourful display for everyone to enjoy.
This project is supported by Creative Ireland and Westmeath County Council under the Westmeath Creative Ireland 2024 Community Grant and delivered by many contributors, from landscapers and wicker fence makers to the youth club from our local Family Resource Centre, who created the incredible drawings of our plants.
Culinary Uses
All the plants chosen for this garden are edible. Different parts of these plants can be used in salads, including the leaves of marigold, lovage and mint and the flowers of borage and nasturtium.
Many of these plants were used as seasonings in medieval times and are still in demand today. These include lemon balm, lavender, and the familiar parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.
Soup was a staple dish in the Middle Ages – then called pottage – enjoyed by peasants and nobles alike. Mint, lovage, parsley, and thyme were all used to make soups or as a garnish.
While some medieval recipes using these plants have fallen out of use, others are still popular today. Below is a sample recipe using a selection of herbs from our garden.
Kitchen Garden Fritters Recipe
Clean the herbs and remove the stems before chopping them up. Fry in a little butter for 1-2 minutes, then add flour, eggs, and milk to make a pancake-style batter.
Fry like pancakes on a hot griddle or frying pan, or fry in a pan of oil and turn when the edges turn golden, and they float to the surface. Serve as soon as possible!
Medicinal Uses
Many herbs and plants in the garden have been used in traditional medicines for thousands of years. During the Middle Ages, beliefs about what different plants could treat what ailments varied widely, often based on local folklore.
For instance, in Cavan, bilberries were thought to cure jaundice, while in Carlow, they were used to treat asthma.
Mint is a traditional Irish cure for deafness — juice from nine sprigs of mint would be run through a cloth, with a thimbleful poured into each ear. Some plants, like lemon balm, borage, and marjoram, were used as relaxants.
Lavender is still used to help with anxiety, often inhaled as vapours, and has been known for its antiseptic properties since ancient times, with its name coming from the Latin word ‘lavare,’ which means ‘to wash.’
Sage has one of the longest documented histories in traditional medicine across many cultures. It is typically used to treat digestive issues like bloating and heartburn.
Meanwhile, nasturtium and rosemary have been used in attempts to reverse baldness.
Folklore
The plants in the garden have deep roots in Irish folklore and beyond. Both mint and lovage were known for their use in love potions. It was believed that slipping some lovage into a prospective husband’s drink would give him the courage to propose!
Strawberry plants had associations with Christianity. Their leaves were sometimes used in place of shamrocks to symbolise the Holy Trinity. You can even spot them in medieval artworks and on the crowns of kings, showing their symbolic importance.
Thyme was used in ancient Celtic festivals, including Samhain, as it was believed to banish evil spirits. Due to this belief, thyme was often used to prepare the dead for burial and, unsurprisingly, became associated with the Black Death during the Middle Ages.
Some of these folklore beliefs are still alive today. The first Sunday in August is still known as Fraughan Sunday in parts of Ireland, linked to the ancient festival of Lúnasa. It was believed to be bad luck to eat bilberries picked after this date in case the fairies had messed with them!
Meadow and Pollinators
The Wildflower Meadow has been a great addition to the castle, offering shelter and food for our tiniest visitors. Pollinator populations worldwide are declining due to habitat loss, pollution, and climate change. Here in Ireland, we have about a hundred species of bees, most of which are solitary, and around thirty butterfly species. The Athlone Castle meadow has attracted many of these vitally important visitors. How many can you spot?
The selection of native wildflowers, including cornflowers, poppies, and clovers, has provided a lively and vibrant backdrop to Athlone Castle’s Historical. Many of these flowers are also in decline, but they make a remarkable difference to the landscape, even on a small scale like this.
Wicker fencing was crafted by Westcountry Willows in County Roscommon. In medieval times, fences like these were often used on smaller plots and provided the framework for houses when covered with a mud-based material to create wattle-and-daub walls. They were cheap, readily available, and relatively straightforward to rebuild if disaster struck.
