We took a trip to Marlay Park, to take a nice walk in the sunshine and to have some tea and cake.

We had an amazing day, the weather was fantastic and the park is beautiful.

We also wanted to take the opportunity to visit their Fairy Tree.

The Fairy Tree was started by a man named Paul O’Hare. He works as an art instructor with adults with learning disabilities in St Michael’s House, Templeogue.

The project began in March 2010 and is ongoing.

It consists of a 300- year-old beech tree stump that has been transformed by the addition of towers, staircases, tiny doorways and little window. If you look very closely inside the windows you can see into the fairies bedroom and kitchen. The detail that has gone into this project is amazing. The tree is located in the woodland area of the park.

People leave messages, drawing, ribbons and decorations on the tree as presents for the fairies. Toddlers are sometimes convinced to even leave their soothers. We all took the time to write out our inner most wishes and placed them all inside a doorway.

After our visit to the fairies we took some afternoon tea in the coffee shop near the main house and had a wander around their beautiful walled gardens.

“I enjoyed seeing the fairy tree and the walled in gardens. We took a lovely group photo on a little bridge in the forest.” – Thomas Ryan

“I had a lovely time. Marlay Park is a lovely place. The fairy tree looks fantastic, there are tiny little windows in the tree and when you shine a light into them you can see little rooms. The weather is wonderful. My wish was for love and I hope it comes true.” – Patricia Carey

“I enjoyed the drive to Marlay Park. My wish was to do well at the next Special Olympics in two years time. I had a lovely cup of tea and a scone in the coffee shop.” – Pauline Rush

“I thought it was the best yet! I felt so at home there. It was so peaceful and nice. The gardens were wonderful and I told the gardeners that it was a credit to them. I loved the fairy tree. We put our wishes inside a small door in the tree and we placed a feather, to symbolize freedom, on the door handle.” – Maureen Rooney

“we all had a great time in Marlay Park. 14 of us went over in the two seven seaters. We walked around the gardens and the forest. We seen a fairy tree and took some pictures of it. We then wrote out a wish and put it in a small doorway. I wished to win the lotto. I would love to go again.” _ Mary Mc Guirk.

2014 HSE/EVE