Our House and Garden

Walk in Wonder and Find Your Way

“God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.”
Mother Teresa

At Suaimhneas you are invited to experience the beauty of the natural world, in all its splendour, in which to find connection, harmony and the divine spirit. The bursts of colour and the detail of every tree and plant, the whisper of the wind and the hum of busy insect life – all stir the senses, the soul and the heart – inviting you to ponder the magnificence of our Universe and your unique place in it.

Our beautiful grounds and garden are abundant with a wealth of trees, a variety of plants and shrubs and a rich collection of flowers. Here you’ll find the space to wander and the secluded spots you need to embrace not just the beauty around you, but the miracle of your own identity and connection to the natural world. It’s truly an opportunity to step outside the rush of modern life and observe in peace the great work of our evolving Universe in which all of us play our part. Here is the space to be conscious, aware and open to new understanding.

Walk our grounds, admire the flowers and marvel at their detail that so enriches our world. Take time to see the bees and butterflies at work, pollinating. See with new eyes how it’s all part of the natural order of life and God’s creation.

The Cosmic Garden

This Garden space is devoted to helping you contemplate the very beginning of life some 13.7 billion years ago. Here in this peaceful, gentle and welcoming. environment you can explore the Universe’s incredible story, and appreciate how you are forever connected to its magnificence – manifesting God’s presence in our Cosmic Home.

The Organic Garden

A microcosm of the interconnected nature of our Universe, this garden lets you experience how different life forms work together to enable growth and give us nourishment and sustenance in our daily lives.

Here, our spread of fruit and vegetables depend on the rich soil as well as the other life forms which have been nourished in our nearby home-made compost area.

“The difficulty is that we began to think of the Universe as a collection of objects rather than a community of subjects.”
– Thomas Berry

The Garden Walk

As you walk the different areas within the grounds, you’ll admire the flowers and become more conscious of their complexity, beauty, colour and texture. You’ll see in a new way how the trees, flowers and plant life are vivid reminders of the beauty of life on our planet. You’ll be mindful of the life-sustaining air and, in turn, unearth a new appreciation of your own being as one with nature.

You can practice mindful breathing as you go, while there are many sheltered spaces where you can sit and silently listen to nature, feeling your connection and kinship. There’s no better way to remind yourself that any diminishment of the natural world is the diminishment of the human. And when you leave this place, you’ll find yourself drawn to new habits, naturally.

The Labyrinth

The labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to Wholeness and has long been used in meditation and prayer. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path as we are drawn to the centre: the core of who we are. To experience the Labyrinth is to take a journey to your own centre, enriching your daily life’s journey.

“Too few people have experienced the divine image as the innermost possession of their own souls”.
– C.J Jung