Iveagh Gardens

The Iveagh Gardens are five minutes from St Stephen's Green and get a small fraction of the visitors, because the entrances are easy to miss - one is a narrow lane off Clonmel Street with no frontage at all. They were laid out in 1865 by Ninian Niven for the Dublin International Exhibition and designed to demonstrate several garden styles at once: formal French parterres and fountains at one end, an English landscape arrangement at the other, with a rustic grotto, a cascade built over stone brought from every county in Ireland, a sunken lawn, a rosarium, a yew maze and a wilderness. The Guinness family gave them to the state. They are less manicured than the Green, which is part of their appeal, and the maze and some sections are periodically closed for restoration. Concerts are held here in summer, closing the gardens for days at a time.

History

The site was shown in 1756 as Leeson's Fields, after Joseph Leeson, 1st Earl of Milltown. In the late 18th century it was leased to John Hatch, developer of Harcourt and Hatch Streets, who sold it to the 1st Earl of Clonmell, known as "Copper-Faced Jack", as his private gardens, and they became known as Clonmell Lawns (Wikipedia, Iveagh Gardens).

Highlights

• The cascade - built with stone from every Irish county.
• The yew maze - with a sundial at its centre.
• The two styles - French formal at one end, English landscape at the other.
• The grotto and sunken lawn - the Victorian rustic set pieces.

When to go

April to September for the planting. Weekday lunchtimes bring office workers; mornings are quiet. Check for summer concerts, which close the gardens entirely for several days.

Things to know

The entrances are genuinely hard to find and unsignposted from the main streets. Sections including the maze close for restoration at times. Summer concert closures are not always well advertised.

Nearby

St Stephen's Green is a short walk north; the National Concert Hall adjoins the gardens.

Key facts