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Still on Easter break, so we took a trip out to Mount Stewart today. The top photograph is of Mount Stewart House viewed from the Dodo Terrace. This terrace is great fun, with lots of animal statues and a wall with gravestones for obviously much-loved family pets (such as the one for Sorbo the minature dachshund seen in the third photograph).
Once owned by the Londonderry family, the whole estate now belongs to the National Trust. The
gardens at Mount Stewart were developed at the behest of
Lady Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart (who was clearly not short of a few bob) and are well worth a visit, containing a wide variety of garden styles and amazing range of plants. It is a really beautiful estate, situated in one of the most gorgeous parts of Northern Ireland - just 20 minutes drive out of Belfast, at the side of
Strangford Lough.