Lawrence photo, taken from the Shrubbery – the first decade of the 20^th century.

The Shrubbery was a kind of garden which was planted with elm trees.  It was located on the site where outdoor dining area and flower beds of the Tara Hotel now stand.  It was originally created on a piece of ground that was once the foreshore on the south side of the street.  Before that area was developed the tide came up to the southern edge of the street opposite the houses.  To accommodate the Railway Station a large area of the foreshore was filled in opposite Elmwood Terrace.  When the railway works were completed, with station, etc., a piece of the filled-in ground next the street was ‘left over’, and this became the ‘Shrubbery’.

 In memory it was enclosed by green-painted iron railings which were removed over time, and the trees gradually disappeared.  It is likely that the residents of the Terrace were allowed to plant shrubs in the plot.  As the Murray Estate claimed all the ground down to ‘the low water mark’, the Estate deemed themselves owners of this ‘left over’ piece, even though the Railway company had filled it in.

The site of the Shrubbery beween Elmwood Terrace and the Railway station.

In 1927 some of the residents of Elmwood Terrace entered into an agreement with the trustees of the Murray-Stewart estate to purchase the ‘Shrubbery’.

This is the agreement between the remaining trustee, Frederick Wyldbore Digby Pinney, and the residents, dated June 1927: 

Courtesy of Donegal County Council Archives.

It was signed by Emma Henry, Margaret J. Conwell, and James Nixon, then manager of the Ulster Bank.  Margaret Conwell, known as Maggie Jane, was one of the O’Donnell family of House No. 6 who married Paddy Conwell from what is now Hegartys’ Centra shop.  Maggie was a grand-aunt of Mary and Kathleen Cunningham. The document is witnessed on behalf of the Murray estate by John Mulreany. 

As time went on it fell to the Killybegs Development Association to maintain the Shrubbery.  In the very early 1970s the late Paddy Keeney made some magnificent concrete and wood summer seats, and these were placed on the plot.  In 1973 the Department of the Marine purchased the remnants of the Murray-Stewart Estate to create Killybegs Harbour Centre. The Shrubbery, as part of the Estate was included in the transaction, and remains part of the Harbour Centre.