Huntington Castle & Gardens

These gardens were mainly laid out in the 17th century by the Edmonds who built Huntington Castle in 1625. This includes the French limes on the Avenue, the parterre or lawns to the side of the house, the fish ponds on either side of the centre walk through the wilderness and the majority of Yew trees which comprise the Yew Walk.

Larger plantings have resulted in Huntington possessing a number of great Irish trees, including varieties of hickory, a cut leaved oak, Siberian crab and buckeye chestnut.

A lake at the bottom of the wilderness was built for ornamental purposes but next to it is one of the earliest water turbine houses in Ireland, providing Huntington with its own electricity as early as 1888.

Huntington Castle, also known as Clonegal Castle, is a castle in Clonegal. The structure was originally a "plantation castle", used for defensive purposes during the plantation of the area in the early 17th century. The original tower house, which served as a garrison, was built in the 1400's as a stronghold for the Caviness family, an old Irish clan. Due to the strategic importance of the village of Clonegal during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland because of its location on the road between Dublin and Wexford, the castle was captured by Oliver Cromwell as he marched on Kilkenny in 1650.

Huntington castle has been plagued by ghosts of Druids in the fields and even in the castle. It is said that the Druids could, at a stroke, create a mist start fires at will and bring down showers of blood. They were feared because they would sacrifice, men and woman, to please their gods. It also has a well that has never run dry, and because of that it has saved the castle from sedge in many instances.