West of the city centre, Phoenix Park’s 707 hectares hold a herd of around 600 wild fallow deer, Dublin Zoo and the Guinness family’s Farmleigh estate inside a single wall. Castleknock village sits on a hill at the park’s western edge, 8 km out from town, with a ruined 12th-century Norman castle above it on private college grounds. Further west again, Corkagh Park covers 120 hectares of former demesne at Clondalkin, with two fishing lakes, a pet farm, a fairy wood and a purpose-built cycle track.
The city-centre entries are small, free and closer to a twenty-minute pause than a day out. Dubh Linn Gardens is the walled lawn behind Dublin Castle, sea serpents mown into the grass. Iveagh Gardens sits behind the National Concert Hall a couple of minutes from St Stephen’s Green and stays quiet largely because the entrances are easy to miss. Merrion Square and the Garden of Remembrance are both short walks from the same Georgian streets.
South of the river the parks follow water. Dodder Valley Park runs 6 km of flat greenway from Tallaght to Rathfarnham, past weirs that have managed the city’s supply since the 1240s, while Herbert Park’s mile-long loop in Ballsbridge circles a pond left over from the 1907 exhibition. The coastal entries, Dublin Bay and Dublin Port, work off the DART; the Great South Wall out to Poolbeg is exposed, so pick your day for it.
The largest enclosed public park in any European capital, free and open around the clock, with roughly 600 wild fallow deer on the western grassland.
A hilltop village 8 km west of the city with Phoenix Park on its doorstep, a ruined Norman castle and Farmleigh close by.
One hundred and twenty hectares of old demesne at Clondalkin, with fishing lakes, a pet farm, a fairy wood and Ireland's only purpose-built cycle track.
Six kilometres of flat, free riverside walking between Tallaght and Rathfarnham, and one of the better city rivers for spotting a kingfisher or a dipper.
The walled lawn behind Dublin Castle, laid out on the tidal black pool that gave the city its name, free and open to walk through.
29 of 29 shown — tap a pin for the place.
Dublin, dublin
Phoenix Park is the largest enclosed public park in any European capital – 707 hectares of Dublin, roughly twice the size of New York’s Central Park, free and open around the clock. A herd of around 600 wild fallow deer grazes the western grassland, and Áras an Uachtaráin, Dublin Zoo and the Wellington Monument all sit inside its walls.
Castleknock, dublin
Castleknock sits on a hill 8 km west of Dublin with the green expanse of Phoenix Park on its doorstep. A ruined 12th-century Norman castle crowns the village, though it stands on private college grounds, while the Dunsink Observatory and the Guinness family's Farmleigh estate are both close by.
Clondalkin, dublin
Corkagh Park is 120 hectares of former demesne on Dublin's western edge, with Ireland's only purpose-built cycle track, two fishing lakes, a pet farm, a big playground and a fairy wood. The land once held gunpowder mills, and a 1787 explosion here was felt in Dublin city.
South Dublin, dublin
The River Dodder runs 6km through this linear park from Tallaght to Rathfarnham, past weirs that have managed Dublin’s water since the 1240s. It’s free, easy walking on a flat greenway, and one of the better city rivers for spotting a kingfisher or a dipper.
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Dubh Linn Gardens is the walled lawn behind Dublin Castle, laid out on the tidal black pool where Vikings beached their ships and the city found its name. Sea serpents are mown into the grass, three corner gardens remember Veronica Guerin, the 2003 Special Olympics volunteers and the Gardaí killed on duty, and the whole thing is free. It is a ten-minute pause, not a day out.
East coast of Ireland, dublin
Dublin Bay curves from Howth Head to Dalkey, a UNESCO biosphere of Blue Flag strands, seal-strewn rocks and tidal mudflats that draw thousands of wading birds. The DART runs the length of it, so you can walk the Great South Wall to Poolbeg Lighthouse one day and the Howth cliffs the next without ever getting in a car.
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Dublin Port moves two-thirds of the Republic's freight, yet a new Tolka Estuary greenway lets you walk its northern edge past Brent geese and tern colonies. The Great South Wall runs 5 km out to the Poolbeg Lighthouse, and a distributed museum scatters heritage stops across the site rather than boxing them into one building.
Phoenix Park, dublin
Open since 1831, Dublin Zoo spreads more than 400 animals across 28 hectares of Phoenix Park, from a 13-hectare African Savanna to the Himalayan Hills' snow leopards and red pandas. It draws over a million visitors a year and puts its money into conservation, running breeding programmes for golden lion tamarins and scimitar-horned oryx. Give it at least three hours, and buy online.
Phoenix Park, dublin
Perched on a ridge above the River Liffey, Farmleigh blends Edwardian grandeur with 78 acres of formal gardens, woodland walks and a working farm. Visitors can wander the grounds, admire contemporary sculpture, and step inside the historic house on a guided tour.
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A sunken memorial garden off Parnell Square, a couple of minutes from O'Connell Street, dedicated to those who died for Irish independence. Walk down to the cruciform mosaic pool, look up at Oisín Kelly's Children of Lir bronze, and read Liam Mac Uistín's poem carved in Irish, English and French. It's free, open daily, and a 20-minute stop rather than an afternoon.
Ballsbridge, dublin
Herbert Park’s duck pond began as a fairground water-chute for the 1907 Dublin exhibition, and the Edwardian bandstand beside it dates from the same summer. A one-mile perimeter loop, six free tennis courts, two playgrounds and a Sunday food market fill 32 acres in Ballsbridge.
Dublin, dublin
The names of all 49,400 Irish soldiers who died in the First World War fill illuminated Harry Clarke manuscripts kept in the granite bookrooms of the Irish National War Memorial Gardens, one of only four gardens Edwin Lutyens designed in Ireland. The 1793 bridge that gives the district its name once had a 'forcing engine' pumping Liffey water across to the north city. Come for the gardens; the Viking burial ground beside them is real but closed to the public.
Clonmel Street, dublin
Tucked behind the National Concert Hall a couple of minutes from St Stephen's Green, Iveagh Gardens is Dublin's 'secret garden' – a free, 8.5-acre Victorian park that stays quiet because most people never find the way in. Inside are a yew maze, a cascade built from stones of Ireland's 32 counties, a heritage rose garden and Ireland's only purpose-built archery field.
Dublin, dublin
Merrion Square is Dublin's finest Georgian square, its central park free and open daily. The star is Danny Osborne's Oscar Wilde memorial, carved from coloured stone and reclining on a Wicklow boulder; on Sundays, artists hang their work along the railings. Around the park sit the National Gallery, Leinster House and the red-brick houses where Wilde, Yeats and Daniel O'Connell once lived.
Glasnevin, dublin
The National Botanic Gardens run free of charge along the River Tolka at Glasnevin, 3 km north of Dublin's centre. The draw is glass – Richard Turner's Curvilinear Range and great Palm House, two of the finest Victorian glasshouses left standing – set among 20,000 living plants, with a walkway now linking the grounds straight into Glasnevin Cemetery.
Rathfarnham, dublin
St Enda's Park in Rathfarnham holds the free Pearse Museum, in the house where Patrick Pearse ran his Irish-language school before the 1916 Rising. Around it lie 20 hectares of woodland walks, Georgian follies and an 18th-century walled garden.
Dublin, dublin
St Stephen’s Green is the largest of Dublin’s Georgian garden squares, opened to the public by Lord Ardilaun in 1880. A 22-acre loop of lawns, a duck-filled lake and a sensory garden sits a minute from Grafton Street – and the Fusiliers’ Arch at the gate still carries bullet marks from the 1916 Rising.
Dublin 16, dublin
On the northern foothills of the Dublin Mountains, Ticknock packs walking trails, a national mountain-bike centre and a tarmac road you can push a buggy up into one easy-access forest. The walk to the Fairy Castle cairn on Two Rock opens the full Dublin Bay-to-Wicklow view.
Dublin, dublin
Wood Quay, on the south bank of the Liffey, is where Norse settlers founded Dublin around 841. Bronze plaques set into the pavement mark where Viking swords, combs and coins were dug up in the 1970s, and a section of the 1100 AD city wall survives inside the council offices. The 1970s battle to save it reshaped Ireland’s heritage laws.
Phibsborough, dublin
Northern Dublin, dublin
Baldoyle, dublin
Glasnevin, dublin
South Circular Road, dublin
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Skerries, dublin
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Tallaght, dublin
Malahide, dublin
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