A Journey through Ballindoon’s layered landscape
The Boathouse. Still from drone footage, by Marek Petrovič.
Originally presented at Edmondstown House during the Ballaghaderreen Arts Festival, Arrival, a Journey through Ballindoon’s Layered Landscape by Anna King presents a rich collection of creative responses to the historic designed landscape of Ballindoon Demesne.
New work by Anna sits alongside contributions from visual artists, writers and makers, with a special musical response from renowned fiddle player and composer Shane Meehan.
Situated on the shores of Lough Arrow, Ballindoon House is approached by a number of distinctive routes shaped by carefully composed sightlines and changing perspectives, with expansive views across the lake, woodland and surrounding uplands. Each offers a different sense of arrival, encounter and place.
During her artist residency at Ballindoon House, Anna invited artists to engage with the Demesne and its layered histories through a series of contemplative walks along three routes. These shared encounters became the foundation for the Arrival art exhibition.
Opening the exhibition, John Beattie of the National Built Heritage Service placed Ballindoon within the wider context of some 6,000 historic gardens and designed landscapes across Ireland, including country house demesnes, nineteenth-century public parks and garden cemeteries.
“How you are intended to move through a landscape such as Ballindoon is all very deliberate,” says Beattie.
The northern approach, for example, predates Ballindoon House, which was built around 1840. Associated with the earlier Kingborough House, the avenue reflects a period when landscape design was influenced by continental Europe, particularly Holland and France.
Long, formal tree-lined avenues and carefully controlled approaches were characteristic of this period. Distance, straight lines and perspective heightened the experience of arrival through anticipation and a sense of drama.
At Ballindoon, that sense of theatre remains. The carriage drive from the north draws the visitor onwards until a turn in the approach brings the house and its imposing portico suddenly into view.
A descent from the back of the house towards Lough Arrow opens another experience of Ballindoon. Many historic domains in Ireland were crossed by networks of tracks and paths radiating out from the main house. At Ballindoon, the trail towards the boathouse draws the visitor beyond the immediate setting of the house as increasingly expansive views of Lough Arrow begin to emerge.
For Beattie, the stunning views across Lough Arrow reveal why this particular setting was chosen for Ballindoon House. Here, architecture, water and landscape come together.
The straight sightlines of the Northern Approach give way to descent and changing perspective, with Lough Arrow becoming an increasingly powerful presence.
Drawing near, the landscape unfolds, resists definition, yet lingers.
The boathouse itself was designed with aesthetic appeal as well as purpose. Beattie describes it as a “picturesque incident” within an already extraordinary landscape.
Reclaimed Jasmine Vine The southern approach unfolds through a softer, more naturalistic landscape.
Beattie places its design within the naturalistic style of landscaping that emerged during the late eighteenth century and became dominant in nineteenth-century Ireland. “Here we have a sweeping avenue that approaches the house initially through an open parkland setting looking out over the ruins of a medieval abbey,” he explains.
From the open parkland, the avenue enters a block of woodland as it starts to follow the shoreline of Lough Arrow. “It hugs the shoreline as you weave in and out through the canopy of the trees, creating an interplay of light and shade, all very much intended for dramatic and deliberate effect.” The approach unfolds through a succession of changing experiences, where glimpses of the lake appear between the trees. Finally, the landscape opens and Ballindoon House and Lough Arrow come fully into view.
The final part of Arrival brought the different historical periods of Ballindoon together, opening the exhibition towards the estate’s continuing story.
A new series of sound studies will explore the relationship between sound, place and Ballindoon’s renewal. Bringing together audio with visual responses through watercolour, graphite and photography, the work considers how sound carries through the landscape and across time.
*This feature presents only a selection from Arrival.
To explore the exhibition in full, including complete poems, videos, artworks and musical contributions, visit www.annaking.ie - * Arrival funded by The National Built Heritage Service & The Ballaghaderreen Arts Festival. Thank you to Edmondstown House, for hosting the exhibition.
