Phoenix Park

The Phoenix Park is about 707 hectares enclosed by an eleven-kilometre wall, which makes it one of the largest walled city parks in Europe - considerably bigger than Central Park or the combined royal parks of London. It was enclosed as a royal deer park in the 1660s, and the fallow deer descended from that original herd still graze the open grassland in the middle of it, several hundred of them, entirely wild and unfenced. The name has nothing to do with the bird: it is an anglicisation of fionn uisce, clear water, after a spring. Inside the walls are Aras an Uachtarain, the president's residence, the American ambassador's residence, Dublin Zoo, a Victorian people's flower garden, the Papal Cross from the 1979 mass, and a 62-metre obelisk to Wellington. The deer are wild animals: feeding them is illegal, and rutting stags in autumn are dangerous.

History

In the Middle Ages the land belonged to Kilmainham Priory, the Irish headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller, and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries it passed to the Crown. In 1662 the new Viceroy, the Duke of Ormond, began turning the land around Phoenix House into a hunting park of 2,000 acres with pheasants and wild deer, which had to be enclosed by a wall (Wikipedia, Phoenix Park).

The landscape

• The deer herd - wild fallow deer descended from the 1660s stock.
• The scale - 707 hectares behind an eleven-kilometre wall.
• The Wellington Testimonial - the 62-metre obelisk near the city gate.
• The residences - the president's house and the Papal Cross grounds.

When to go

Any season; autumn brings the rut and the best deer viewing, from a distance. Early mornings are quiet. Weekends fill the roads and car parks.

Good to know

Do not feed or approach the deer - it is illegal, it harms them, and rutting stags in autumn injure people every year. The park is large enough that walking between the main features takes real time. Traffic uses the through roads.

Nearby

Dublin city centre is east; Kilmainham Gaol is south of the river.

Key facts