Dublin Places | St Anne’s Park

St. Anne’s Park is a public park and recreational facility, shared between Raheny and Clontarf, both suburbs on the northside of Dublin, Ireland.

The park, the second largest municipal park in Dublin, is part of a former 500 acre (2 km²) estate assembled by members of the Guinness family, beginning with Benjamin Lee Guinness in 1835 (the largest municipal park is nearby (North) Bull Island, also shared between Clontarf and Raheny)

Facilities

The estate was named after the Holy Well of the same name on the lands. Lands were purchased over time to build up an extensive property, and a large Italianate-style mansion house was commissioned.
Sir Arthur Edward Guinness (Lord Ardilaun), who inherited the estate in 1868, was the person most responsible for expanding and developing the estate and gardens and planted wind-breaking evergreen (holm) oaks and pines along the main avenue and estate boundaries, where they remain. Lord and Lady Ardilaun had no children and the estate passed to their nephew Bishop Plunkett in the 1920s. In 1937, he decided he could no longer maintain such a large estate and negotiations with Dublin Corporation resulted in the house and 444.75 acres (1.80 km2) of estate being sold to the Corporation for approximately £55,000 in 1939. Bishop Plunkett retained Sybil Hill (now St. Paul’s College) as a private residence with 30 acres (120,000 m²) of parkland, and it later became the site of St. Paul’s College, Raheny, with extensive private playing fields.
In December 1943, the main residence of St. Anne’s, “The Mansion”, was gutted by a fire while being used as a store by the Local Defence Force and the ruins were demolished in 1968. In the meantime, just over 200 acres (0.8 km2) of the estate were developed for public housing with the central and most attractive portion comprising about 240 acres (1.0 km2) retained as parkland and playing fields.

The park has a number of features, from the small Naniken River to the Duck Pond, built by the Guinness family, a number of follies, a walled garden, grand avenue, and from more modern times, a rockery, a famous Rose Garden and newer miniature rose garden, and Dublin city’s arboretum, with 1,000 varied trees.

Follies
The follies include a Herculanean Temple on the banks of the Duck Pond and a viewing tower (once part of the estate’s mansion house) and three fortifications. An ornamental bridge high over the Naniken River had its central portion removed in the 1980s, though the Roman-style building at the landing point remains, while a “Druidic Circle” of Giant’s Causeway basalt was lost at an earlier stage. The viewing tower has been closed for many years.

Buildings
The elaborate Tudor redbrick Ardilaun stables survive, and have been modernised as the Red Stables Art Centre with Food Farmers market.

Gardens
The walled garden, including a fruit garden added to the estate by Bishop Plunkett, is now chiefly a 12 acre (49,000 m²) plant nursery for the Parks Department. Thousands of bedding plants, shrubs, trees, and floral tubs are produced annually in the nursery. There is a herbaceous garden area open during limited hours, and a fine clock tower, restored to working order in 2007. It has been proposed in early 2009 that some allotments be made available in part of the walled garden.

Sporting facilities
The park is intensively used by the public through its 35 playing pitches, 18 hard-surfaced tennis courts (some managed by Raheny Tennis Club), and a par-3 golf course. Woodland paths provide for walkers and joggers.

Visitor facilities
The Red Stables were renovated in the 1990s, and now hold artists’ residences, an exhibition space and a cafe, while a Red Stables Food Farmers Market is held in their courtyard every Saturday.

Close