Phoenix Park
One of the most unique and precious emeralds in Dublin's treasury is the Phoenix Park, larger than all the London city-centre parks combined and possibly the biggest urban park in Europe.
One of the most unique and precious emeralds in Dublin's treasury is the Phoenix Park, larger than all the London city-centre parks combined and possibly the biggest urban park in Europe. A few short years after the Anglo-Normans assumed mastery of Dublin and its hinterland Hugh Tyrell, 1st Baron of Castleknock, granted a large swathe of land, including what now comprises the Phoenix Park, to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem. They established their great abbey at Kilmainham on the site now occupied by the Royal Hospital.
The knights lost Kilmainham when King 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 King Charles II, his Viceroy in Dublin, James Butler, Duke of Ormond, turned the lands into a Royal Deer Park. He introduced a herd of fallow deer, a thousand pheasants and some partridge to provide hunting sport for the king and his retinue. In 1680 a boundary wall encircling the park's present 1,752 acres (709 hectares) was constructed. The Phoenix Park remained the exclusive reserve of the British Royalty and its Irish court until the Viceroy, Lord Chesterfield, threw open the demesne to the public in 1745.
Huge improvements were carried out to the park during the 1830s and 40s under the very talented landscape architect Decimus Burton. In 1860 it was placed under the care of the Commissioners of Public Works. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries several magnificent mansions, lodges, institutions and memorials were erected in different corners of the park including, in 1831, the Royal Zoological Gardens, one of the oldest zoos in the world.
Features in the Phoenix Park include the aforementioned zoo, Áras an Uachtaráin (residence of the President of Ireland, Ashtown Castle Visitor Centre, The Papal Cross, The Wellington Monument, Knockmaree, the American Ambassador's residence, Garda (police) headquarters, cricket grounds, a horse polo field and many walks and scenic routes.
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The above information was valid to the best knowledge available to the compiler but responsibility cannot be accepted for any unintentional inaccuracies or out of date data.
