The house overlooks its own miniature park, with some magnificent specimen trees including a very large London Plane, quite a rare tree in a rural setting, with widespread drooping branches forming a vast green tent in summer. The land is largely rough pasture, while a grass avenue at one side leads to a simple bridge over the Derry Brook, which gives access to a small wood where there are wild flowers, birds and badgers.

Behind the house is the stable yard with tall gates at both ends and two stable ranges. The smaller block is contemporary with the house while the larger block, of cut stone, is more recent. Plans are afoot to restore these for further accommodation, when time and funds allow!

The tall slender tower of Kilconnell Friary closes the vista at the end of the avenue; the surroundings are peaceful, yet easily accessible from Dublin and Shannon, and the sky is dark at night.

Other Interesting Buildings in the Area
The surrounding area is particularly rich in man made structures. Raths and ring forts abound to the extent that there almost seems to be one in every field. At Turoe, north of Loughrea, the famous Turoe stone is covered with wonderful La Tène abstract ornament and there is a similar stone at Castle Strange, near Athleague.

Clonmacnoise, Kilmacduagh, Inis Cealtra, and Lorrha are important monastic sites from the early Christian period. There is a wonderful miniature Romanesque cathedral at Clonfert; mediaeval abbeys and friaries at Athenry, Claregalway, Clontuskert, Kilconnell, Portumna and Roscommon, and St. Nicholas’s in Galway is Ireland’s largest mediaeval church. The town of Athenry is still partly surrounded by its mediaeval wall and there is a huge, many towered, keep-less castle of 1280 at Roscommon.

On the domestic front are numerous tower houses, the precursors of the small country house, with particularly fine examples at Ballylee, Clonbrock, Derryhiveny and Pallas. There are 17th century transitional houses of varying sizes at Athleague, Glenmore, Glinsk, and Portumna, while the ruin at Eyrecourt was arguably Ireland’s most modern country house in the 1660’s and a milestone in the development of Irish domestic architecture. Sadly, many of the country houses in the locality are in ruins, and those that remain are not usually open to the public, but the dramatic ruins at Dunsandle and Tyrone, the despoiled demesnes at Clonbrock and Woodlawn and the gates and follies at Lawrencetown, Mount Talbot, Mote and Waterston are well worth exploring in detail, as are the mausoleums at Clonbeirne, Drumacoo and Monivea.

Ballinasloe has some fine stone buildings; Gort is an intact late-18th century town, while Loughrea cathedral has a fine collection of the best modern Irish ecclesiastical art.

The Countryside
The surrounding land is largely one of relatively flat pasture, often full of rushes, and surrounded by the ubiquitous dry-stone walls; or of woodland or raised peat bog, the latter covered with heather and a Mecca for all types of rare flora and fauna. The land is drained, or at least partly drained, for it can be very wet, by a number of beautiful small rivers; the Abbert, the Bunowen, the Clare, the Clarin, the Cappagh, the Dunkellin, the Grange, the Killaclogher, the Kilcrow, the Shriveen and the Suck.

East Galway is bounded to the east by the River Shannon, Ireland’s longest river, with its two largest lakes, Loughs Ree and Derg. To the south the Slieve Aughty Mountains form the boundary with County Clare while the River Suck, a tributary of the Shannon, is the boundary with Roscommon to the north and north east, where the countryside becomes more hilly and dramatic as it rises to ridge of hills above Lough Ree.

Westwards, beyond Loughrea and Athenry, the stone wall country is rapidly being swallowed up by the ever expanding city of Galway but there are still many interesting inlets and promontories along Galway Bay. South of Oranmore and west of Kinvara the coastal plain meets the famous Burren; a moonscape area of limestone pavement and seemingly bare hills, its rock fissures home to many rare alpine plants. North eastwards, beyond Tuam, the dry stone walls of Galway blend seamlessly into Co. Mayo, with Loughs Corrib and Mask, and the mountains of Connemara beyond.

Activities
Activities that can be enjoyed while staying at Ballinderry Park include:

• Golf – courses at Ballinasloe, Athlone, Glasson, Loughrea etc…
  
• Game fishing for brown trout – in season and by prior arrangement
  
• Coarse fishing - for pike and other coarse fish
  
• Bird watching – particularly in the autumn and winter
  
• Walking – there are a number of signed walkways in the area
  
• Cycling – easy, since there are few hills
  
• Horseracing – at Ballinrobe, Galway, Kilbeggan and Roscommon
  
• Horse riding
  
• Irish music

International events include Galway Races, a week-long festival of racing and fun at the beginning of August, The Galway Oyster Festival, The Galway Arts Festival and the great horse fair at Ballinasloe, one of the largest and oldest established horse fairs in Europe, which takes place during the second week in October each year.