Salthill House

Walled garden complex on rectangular-plan associated with Salt Hill (see 40909909), erected c. 1800 and heavily altered c. 1860. Now in use as ornamental gardens with some areas in use as kitchen gardens. Walls constructed of coursed rubble and random rubble stone masonry. Square-headed integral entrances having modern wrought-iron gates. South-east wall abuts main outbuilding (see 40909939) to rear of house. Glasshouse and potting shed to the north-west end. Set back from road in extensive mature grounds shared with Salt Hill (see 40909909). Located a short distance to the north-west of the shoreline of Donegal Bay, and to the south-west of Mountcharles.

This substantial and well-maintained walled garden retains its early form and character, and forms part of an interesting group of structures associated with Salt Hill (see 40909909). The simple but well-built boundary walls survive good condition, their unrefined rubble stone construction indicative of their original utilitarian use. These walled gardens probably originally date to the last decades of the eighteenth century or the first decades of the nineteenth century. Map information suggests that the boundary walls were significantly altered during the second half of the nineteenth century, forming most of the site as it appears today. The scale of these walled gardens provides an interesting historical insight into the extensive resources required to run and maintain a middle-sized country estate in Ireland during the late-eighteenth and the nineteenth-century, when they would have been used to produce a variety of foodstuffs for use in the main house and throughout the estate, and probably also to provide an income source. Now planted with an attractive modern garden, this walled garden adds context to the setting of the main house, and is a modest addition to the built heritage of the Mountcharles area.