Go winter garden visiting

Go winter garden visiting at one of the many great Irish gardens at their best at this time of year, when most other gardens are settling down for their winter slumber. You'll come back with a notebook full of inspiration for turning your own garden into a space that's as beautiful in the coldest months as it is in high summer.

The lovely landscape of Mount Stewart, in Co. Down, emerges in its full splendour late in the year, with a last brilliant explosion of colour from the maples, eucryphias and myrtles which are such a mark of this exceptional garden. Look out over the Mountains of Mourne from the 'Temple of the Winds' for a masterclass in using 'borrowed views' to enhance your own garden.

Also wonderful in late autumn and early winter is the National Arboretum at Castlewellan Forest Park, where you can get thoroughly lost in the world's longest and largest hedge maze. Rowallane Garden, also in Co. Down, offers bracing woodland walks among champion trees and rhododendron dells, while the elaborate parterres of the Winter Gardens at Woodstock House, in Co. Kilkenny, look lovely rimed in frost: use low box hedging and your own design to recreate the look on a smaller scale at home.