Outdoor yoga returns to Annes Grove Gardens this summer

The Office of Public Works is using one of its most atmospheric sites to make yoga feel less like a studio appointment and more like a summer habit. Outdoor Yoga at Annes Grove Gardens in County Cork is set for every Sunday morning in June, July and August at 10 a.m., with Christine leading the sessions and all levels welcome.

The format is straightforward, which is part of the appeal. Participants are asked to bring a yoga mat, and the class is designed to work for newer students as well as regular practitioners who want to trade four walls for open air. The OPW’s pitch goes beyond the usual flow-and-go class model, encouraging people to stay afterward for a leisurely stroll through the gardens. That makes this feel more like a morning built around movement, breath and time outside than a pure fitness slot.

Annes Grove is not just a pretty backdrop. Heritage Ireland describes it as an historic estate near Castletownroche that was home to the Annesley family from the 1600s until it was gifted to the Irish state in 2015 and came into the care of the OPW. The gardens have been open to the public since 2022, and the site’s layered history is part of what gives the yoga offering its edge. Richard Arthur Grove Annesley developed the landscape in the Robinsonian style in the early 1900s, supported plant-hunting expeditions led by Frank Kingdon-Ward and assembled an exotic plant collection that still shapes the experience of moving through the grounds.

The yoga sessions also sit inside a broader access push at the garden. Annes Grove Gardens is offering free admission on the first Friday of each month during the 2026 season, with free-entry dates listed as 5 June, 3 July, 7 August and 4 September. For anyone deciding whether to make the trip, that matters: the garden is being opened up as a public wellness space, not treated as a private club or a one-off special event.

That mix of heritage setting, low-pressure access and a schedule that settles naturally into the summer calendar is what makes this return worth noting. Annes Grove sits inside the OPW’s National Historic Properties portfolio of 32 sites, alongside places such as Dublin Castle, Phoenix Park, Kilkenny Castle, Emo Court and Garinish Island, but the yoga program gives it a distinctly local, usable role. It is the kind of class that works best when you want your practice to end with a walk instead of a commute.