Vine House and Peach House, Florence Court kitchen garden

The walled garden was laid out in the eighteenth century and extended in the 1870s by Charlotte, Countess of Enniskillen, according to Wikipedia. The glasshouses were used, the National Trust says, to grow produce for the estate, and the Trust's project aims to restore the garden to its 1930s condition. The original glasshouses declined after the head gardener left in 1947, and their footprint was rediscovered only during archaeological excavations carried out by the Trust in 2014. A 2018 dig uncovered metal brackets, probably internal fixtures. On 8 April 2019 the Trust announced a grant of £374,800 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the wider project, while Wikipedia dates a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to September 2017: the two dates do not match. Work to stabilise the original garden wall that would support the glasshouses began in June 2022, concrete foundations were laid that year, and installation was completed by November 2022, before the opening on 27 April 2023.

According to the maker, Alitex, the two glasshouses are of the three-quarter-span type, a traditional form made to measure. Alitex gives 15.2 m as the length of each, and 4.2 m as the width of one and 3.8 m of the other; it says the Peach House is the wider of the two without stating in the text which measurement belongs to which house. The south-facing brick wall absorbs sunlight and warms the interior. The glasshouses are powder-coated in a finish called Downland Stone, chosen to match the original structures. The National Trust photograph shows two long glazed structures with white frames, either side of a brick gable with a round window, between vegetable beds.

The Vine House is used as a community space for events and for growing: Alitex mentions tomatoes, aubergines and herbs. The Peach House is used for propagation and houses fruit trees, according to the same maker. The National Trust says the plants were moved into the Peach House in April 2023, and that the glasshouses are meant to teach propagation and glasshouse growing skills in connection with educational events. The Trust also mentions the possibility of internships for local horticulture students. Supergardens says the kitchen garden produces fruit, vegetables and flowers year round, without saying how much comes from the glasshouses.

Both glasshouses stand in the walled kitchen garden, which the National Trust opens to visitors, and they can be seen from its paths. The Trust's photograph shows them at the end of a central path, either side of a brick gable. Alitex reports that visitors, new and returning, talk about the glasshouses in the kitchen garden. The kitchen garden and the orchard of Irish apples, which Supergardens says holds more than forty apple varieties, are presented as parts of the same estate. Opening times and admission prices change and should be checked on the National Trust website before a visit.