The garden lions are back!

Lions are returning to Rowallane Gardens in Co. Down after over a year of absence.

There was an outcry after the famous pair of stone lions which had guarded Rowallane’s Avenue Ground for over 100 years went missing. Despite a huge campaign on social media and widespread coverage in the local press, the lions have never been found.

Now, however, the National Trust, which owns Rowallane and has its Northern Ireland headquarters there, has commissioned exact replicas of the lions and they are returning to their plinths to guard the Avenue once more.

The original lions came to the 50-acre garden at Rowallane in 1875, when the then owner and creator of Rowallane, Reverend Moore, commissioned the engineer James Coulter to create a new entrance to the garden through the Avenue Ground. The new driveway blasted from the rock, was complemented by a pair of stone cairns created from river-washed granite, and a bridge across the stream with stone seats. The finishing touches were the lions, which he is believed to have bought at auction or from another estate.

They had guarded the Avenue ever since, greeting visitors to the garden which is famous for its walled garden, wildflower meadows and collections of choice plants including rhododendrons, azaleas and penstemons. Then in December 2016, just after Christmas, thieves snatched the 3ft tall limestone lions from their plinths. Police believe they used an angle grinder to cut the statues free and may have been stealing them to order. Similar statues change hands for up to £3000 online.

Stonemasons used original documentation and photographs from the records to carve the new lions from sandstone to exactly match the originals. Although they look very new at the moment, the National Trust hopes that over time the new lions will weather and age, to be enjoyed by many generations of visitors to come.