Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SIGHTS
TRINITY COLLEGE
See
Click here
.
HISTORIC BUILDING
DUBLIN CASTLE
See
Click here
.
HISTORIC BUILDING
CHESTER BEATTY LIBRARY
See
Click here
.
MUSEUM
ST STEPHEN'S GREEN
( dawn-dusk)
As you watch the assorted groups of friends, lovers and individuals splaying
themselves across the nine elegantly landscaped hectares of St Stephen's Green, consider
that those same hectares once formed a common for public whippings, burnings and
hangings. These days, the harshest treatment you'll get is the warden chucking you off the
green for playing football or Frisbee.
The buildings around the square date mainly from the mid-18th century, when the green
was landscaped and became the centrepiece of Georgian Dublin. The northern side was
known as the Beaux Walk and it's still one of Dublin's most esteemed stretches, home to
Dublin's original society hotel, the
Shelbourne
. Nearby is the tiny
Huguenot Cemetery
, estab-
lished in 1693 by French Protestant refugees.
Railings and locked gates were erected in 1814, when an annual fee of one guinea was
charged to use the green. This private use continued until 1877 when Sir Arthur Edward
Guinness pushed an act through parliament opening the green to the public once again. He
also financed the central park's gardens and ponds, which date from 1880.
top of Grafton St. Modelled to look like a smaller version of the Arch of Titus in Rome, the
arch commemorates the 212 soldiers of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who were killed fighting
for the British in the Boer War (1899-1902).
Across the road from the western side of the green is the 1863
Unitarian Church
MAP
GOOGLE MAP
, which has one of the finest facades on St Stephen's Green. During the 1916
Easter Rising, the building was occupied by rebel forces led by Countess Markievicz
(1868-1927). The columns are scarred from the bullet holes.
PARK
