Dublin
The Iveagh Gardens is a public park located between Clonmel Street and Upper Hatch Street, near the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland. It is designated as a National Historic Property.HistoryThe site of the gardens was shown in 1756 as Leeson's Fields after Joseph Leeson, 1st Earl of Milltown.Clonmell LawnsIn the late 18th Century Lord Milltown leased the land to John Hatch, the principal developer of Harcourt and Hatch streets. Hatch sold it to John Scott, 1st Earl of Clonmell, (also known as "Copper-faced Jack") as his private gardens. The gardens then became known as "Clonmell Lawns" Located on Harcourt Street is Clonmell House that faces on to Clonmell Street which leads into the Iveagh Gardens. A subterranean passage brought the Earl from his house to the gardens without him having to walk over the street. The Wide Streets Commission had planned for Clonmell Street to run through what is now the gardens thereby linking Harcourt Street to the then newly constructed Earlsfort Terrace. However, this passage was not located during archaeological monitoring conducted during the construction of the LUAS.Coburg GardensWhen the 1st Earl died in 1798, his son the 2nd Earl inherited the estate including Clonmell Gardens. The estate was sold in 1810 and the gardens were opened for public use around 1817 and renamed "Coburg Gardens" after the royal family of Saxe-Coburg. Entrance to the park was from the South Side of St Stephen's Green, the "Royal Horse Bazaar".
Phoenix Park is an urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying 2–4 km west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its 11 km perimeter wall encloses 707ha, one of the largest walled city parks in Europe. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since the seventeenth century has been home to a herd of wild Fallow deer. The English name comes from the Irish fionn uisce meaning "clear water". The Irish Government is lobbying UNESCO to have the park designated as a world heritage site.HistoryAfter the Normans conquered Dublin and its hinterland in the 12th century, Hugh Tyrrel, 1st Baron of Castleknock, granted a large area of land, including what now comprises the Phoenix Park, to the Knights Hospitaller. They established an abbey at Kilmainham on the site now occupied by Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The knights lost their lands in 1537 following the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII of England. Eighty years later the lands reverted to the ownership of the King's representatives in Ireland. On the restoration of Charles II of England, his Viceroy in Dublin, the Duke of Ormonde, established a Royal Hunting Park on the land in 1662. It contained pheasants and wild deer, making it necessary to enclose the entire area with a wall. The Park originally included the demesne of Kilmainham Priory south of the River Liffey, but when the building of the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham commenced in 1680, the Park was reduced to its present size, all of which is now north of the river. It was opened to the people of Dublin by the Earl of Chesterfield in 1745.
