I spent a week in southern and western Ireland in June and was based at Kells Bay for the first three days, enjoying Billy Alexander's very good bed & breakfast and his wife's Thai dinners in their restaurant.
Photographing Kells Bay isn't straightforward. What is special about the place is difficult to pin down, indeed, it's the 'placeness' of Kells Bay that is special. It's the opposite of a botanical collection, it's a unique landscape with its own memorable atmosphere (my partner was saying 'I miss Kells Bay' before we even got home...).
There have been photo-threads on Kells Bay before, here and here and here, but the place has matured in the ensuing 4-5 years.
When we visited, it had been unusually dry and a few intense showers on the second day were more than welcome, but mainly it was fine. I don't think these photos need much chatter.
There's a xerophyte bed, with a very large Jubaea as an exclamatory marker, just by the main house. The view isn't too bad either.
But the main course is served when one ventures into the 'primeval forest' of 100 year old Dicksonia and mixed woodland, underplanted with a variety of superb Blechnum spp. (that someone else might helpfully identify for me), along with some Asplenium and Platycerium.
Storm damage is a fact of life this close to the Atlantic.
Luma apiculata has become naturalised here.
This group of Cordyline indivisa seems to be very happy:
There are some suitably non-anachronistic dinosaurs to keep the ferns company:
I ought to know what this is, but I don't. The flowers resemble Philadelphus, but not the foliage.
Massed Zantedeschia and Digitalis make a surprising combination close to the house.
Rhododendron.
The long loop trail eventually re-emerges in the car park at the rear of the B&B. Not the usual car park style of planting, though.
Anyone planning to visit gardens in this region of Ireland should put Kells Bay on the 'must visit' list. Good company, too.