| TABLE OF CONTENTS | Page |
| Foreword | viii |
| Acknowledgements | ix |
| Introduction | 1 |
| A dramatic arena | |
| Chapter 1: The new order | 9 |
| ‘A sister garden’ | |
| Some champion trees | |
| The gardens and arboretum—a general profile | |
| Kilmacurra–Westaston–Kilmacurragh | |
| A sense of melancholy | |
| Not a mere reliquary | |
| A hospitable garden | |
| The ‘essence of the collection’—the Moore connection | |
| The arboretum and gardens—a preview | |
| Chapter 2: Kilmacurragh—a sacred site | 43 |
| A saint’s hermitage—a thirteenth-century church—a graveyard | |
| A sacred burial place—a monastic heritage | |
| Historic monuments | |
| Recent history | |
| A lugubrious undertow | |
| A memorial garden | |
| Chapter 3: The reluctant Cromwellian | 53 |
| ‘The felons of the Leinster Mountains’ | |
| Exploitation of wood resources—the insurrection of 1641 | |
| A family dynasty established on confiscated lands: | |
| Cromwellian confiscation and redistribution of lands | |
| Charles, the reluctant Cromwellian | |
| Incontrovertibly Cromwellian | |
| Chapter 4: The seventeenth–eighteenth century | 61 |
| Thomas Acton II (1671–1750) and his wife, Elinor Kempston | |
| Kilmacurragh mansion—its architectural design | |
| ‘My new mansion house’ | |
| 300 years after construction | |
| A stout construction | |
| A significant use of timber | |
| Rebuilding of the coach-house and stables in 1729 | |
| A geographical perspective | |
| Marriage to Elinor | |
| ‘Clothing’ the interior of the mansion | |
| The Dutch gardeners | |
| Thomas active in local affairs | |
| Passionate about trees—a father’s advice | |
| The Dublin Society | |
| Thomas—an innovator | |
| Hundreds of yew trees | |
| Sheriff of Wicklow | |
| Chapter 5: The eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries | 86 |
| William Acton (1711–79), keeper of the writs of the | |
| Court of Common Pleas, and his wife, Jane Parsons | |
| The Acton woods at Clara | |
| Thomas Acton III (d. 1817), high sheriff for County | |
| Wicklow (1781), and his wife, Sidney Davis | |
| The shaping of a landscape | |
| Agricultural progress in an unequal society | |
| The doomed rebellion of 1798—a Wicklow débâcle | |
| A cruel judicial system | |
| Chapter 6: The great nineteenth-century plant-hunters | 99 |
| A heroic generation: plant-hunters represented in Kilmacurragh | |
| William Lobb (1809–64), plant-hunter | |
| The quest for the Chile pines | |
| The ‘messenger of the big tree’ | |
| Final years in obscurity | |
| Giving the conifers their freedom | |
| Chapter 7: The nineteenth century 112 | |
| Colonel William Acton, high sheriff for County | |
| Wicklow (1820), MP for Wicklow (1841–8), and his wife, Caroline Walker | |
| Wicklow—a county of continuing contrasts | |
| The commercial nurseries | |
| Col. Acton, a man of action | |
| A family tragedy | |
| The dark decade of famine and disease | |
| Col. Acton, ‘the friend of the poor’ | |
| The shame of the workhouse | |
| A county of contrasts | |
| The ‘baneful habits of vagrancy’ | |
| A caring parent | |
| A protracted illness | |
| Chapter 8: Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) | 129 |
| The rhododendron collection | |
| Chapter 9: The twentieth century: the glorious years | 138 |
| Thomas Acton (1826–1908) and his sister, Janet Acton (1824–1906) | |
| Childhood: a retiring nature | |
| Family archivist | |
| Education | |
| The Grand Tour | |
| The conifers | |
| The William Lobb trees | |
| A welcome distraction | |
| Inspiring and productive friendships | |
| The Hooker connection | |
| A triallist | |
| Thomas’s innovative work practice | |
| ‘Household god’ | |
| The Banks Medals—‘most outstanding conifers in private ownership’ | |
| Agrarian discontent | |
| The achievements of Thomas and Janet | |
| Trend-setters | |
| Janet’s Broad Walk | |
| The Double Borders | |
| The will | |
| The obituary | |
| A fitting tribute | |
| Postscript | |
| Chapter 10: After Thomas | 165 |
| The grim toll of World War I—the Acton war heroes | |
| An infant heir | |
| The Queen Anne mansion that can no longer speak for itself | |
| ‘A tortuous history’—a chronological account | |
| The Kilmacurragh Park Hotel (1932–42) | |
| The sale of Kilmacurragh | |
| Kilmacurragh—a national arboretum? | |
| ‘The rooks’ domain’ | |
| Appeals and castigations in national newspapers | |
| The Kilmacurragh Action Group | |
| Decline of the mansion | |
| Imaginative proposals | |
| Bibliography | 177 |
| Notes | 179 |