Deer in the centre of Dublin!. You MUST visit the Phoenix Park in Dublin - Incredible!

This is the incredible Phoenix Park in Dublin, one of the largest enclosed city parks in Europe.

We begin our look at this magnificent park by entering it at the Parkgate Street Gate, not far from Heuston train station and the Luas stop there. So this is an ideal way to travel to the park.

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You can probably see that I’ve picked the pace up here. Firstly because I’m now on a bike, with the camera attached to my handlebars (so please excuse the shaky footage) but I’ve also speeded the film up here, because this park is big – very big – 1750 acres and with an 11 kilometre wall enclosing it, so if I’d tried to film it on foot I would have been here all day.

But by the magic of pedal power and time lapse we arrive at our first destination within the park. This is the Wellington Monument, a 62 metre tall obelisk, unsurprisingly commemorating the victories of the Duke of Wellington. Remember, for those watching from outside Ireland, Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until after the Irish War of Independence in 1921. This is the largest Obelisk in Europe.

Back to the road again, this central avenue called Chesterfield Avenue runs the entire length of the park.

Our next detour from the avenue takes us to the Phoenix Park Tea Rooms. This picturesque Victoria Tea Room has been on the go since 1896. It’s a landmark building was originally constructed for £340.

Adjacent to the Tea Rooms is Dublin Zoo, which opened in 1831. That makes it the 3rd oldest zoo in the world. But we don’t have time to visit it today.

Back onto the bike and back onto Chesterfield Avenue to continue our journey. Our next stop is very special, and I’ve already given the game away at the start of this film. Here we visit some of the park’s Fallow Deer who have lived in the park since the 17th Century. What an absolute pleasure it is to be able to get up close to wildlife like this in the centre of a city. They’re so tame as well and are obviously used to the attention of visitors and tourists.

Off we go again, across country this time, but it’s not long before we arrive at the magnificient Áras an Uachtaráin. This is the home of the President of Ireland. Ireland is of course a Republic and it’s current President is the poet Michal D Higgins. This building was erected in 1754. Prior to Ireland becoming a Republic it was the home of the British Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Back onto the avenue, I’m getting my exercise today alright. We’re heading now to the site of John Paul II’s visit to Ireland in 1979. This massive Papal Cross was erected here for the Pope’s celebration of mass to over 1 million people, a crowd equal to the entire population of Dublin at that time. It stands 35 meters high and is constructed of steel girders.

We’re heading back down Chesterfield Avenue now, as I only had the bike hired for an hour and really you can’t do much in an hour in a park this size. There are certainly some other things you could check out here if you had time. There’s a visitor centre and Ashfield Castle, there’s also the beautiful People’s Gardens. You could visit Magazine fort or just marvel at the sheer beauty of this oasis in Dublin’s centre. For the naturalists among you, the park has 351 identified plant species, grasslands and woodlands and there are 72 species of birds.

It's interesting that the Irish Government is currently lobbying to have the park designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.


I hope this has been a useful introduction to the park, perhaps it’ll encourage you to pay a visit? If the film has been interesting please make sure to like it and please, please think about subscribing as your support of the channel helps it to grow, so that I can keep uploading more interesting Naked Ireland videos. Feel free also to share the video with friends and I’ll see you all in the next Naked Ireland video.