Phoenix Park
On a beautiful sunny May afternoon this is the view from Phoenix Park, not so good when you are looking towards the city. But turn around and you have the largest walked and iner city park in Europe on your doorstep.
The park is under used during the week, and gets fairly busy at the weekend. There is horse ridding, Dublin Zoo, the Presidents Residence, running tracks, cycle routes, coffee shops - it is easy to spend a day there just wandering - that is if you can’t get out of the city into the great Irish countryside.
Of all the parks in Ireland this is the best by far - make use of it, in the evening it is safe until at least dark - cricket as you can see below is played there, football all over the place - and don’t miss the heard of wild deer that room the park.
History of the Park
After the Normans conquered Dublin and its hinterland in the 12th century Hugh Tyrell, 1st Baron of Castleknock, granted a large area of land, including what now comprises the Phoenix Park, to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. They established an abbey at Kilmainham on the site now occupied by Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The knights lost their lands when Henry VIII confiscated monastic properties in 1537 and eighty years later the lands once more reverted to the ownership of the King’s representatives in Ireland. On the restoration of Charles II, his Viceroy in Dublin, Lord Ormonde established a Royal Hunting Park which contained pheasants and wild deer, therefore it was necessary to enclose the entire area with a wall. It was opened to the people of Dublin by Lord Chesterfield in 1745.
All the Facts
The Phoenix Park is the largest enclosed urban public park in Europe located 3 km to the north west of Dublin city centre in Ireland. It measures 712 hectares (1,760 acres), with a walled circumference of 16 km that contains large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues. The park is home to a herd of wild Fallow deer since the seventeenth century. The name is a corruption of the Irish fionn uisce meaning “clear water”.
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