St Stephen's Green, Dublin

St. Stephens Green (informally referred to as Stephen's Green) is Ireland's best known Victorian public park.

The park is adjacent to Dublin's main shopping streets, Grafton Street, and to St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre.

The largest of the parks in Dublin's main Georgian squares, this 9 hectare park has been maintained in the original Victorian layout with extensive perimeter tree and shrub planting, spectacular spring and summer Victorian bedding. The herbaceous border also provides colour from early spring to late autumn. Sanctuary from inclement weather can be obtained in the Victorian lakeside shelter or in the Victorian Swiss shelters in the center of the park.

Over 3.5 km of pathways are accessible for all users. The waterfall and Pulham rock work on the western side of the green are worth a visit as is the ornamental lake which provides a home for waterfowl and a garden for the visually impaired. A number of sculptures are located throughout the green. A children's playground is a popular attraction of the park. Lunchtime concerts are performed in the band stand during the summer.

Until 1663 St Stephen’s Green was a marshy common on the edge of the city of Dublin, used for grazing. The park was enclosed with a wall in 1664.

After the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria suggested that St Stephen's Green be renamed Albert Green and have a statue of Albert at its center - a suggestion rejected with indignation by the Dublin Corporation and the people of the city, to the Queen's chagrin.

Access to the Green was restricted to local residents, until 1877, when Parliament passed an Act to reopen St Stephen’s Green to the public, at the initiative of Sir A.E. Guinness, a member of the Guinness brewing family.

Some of the notable features in the park include:
- the Fusilier's Arch (at the Grafton Street corner which commemorates Royal Dublin Fusiliers who died in the Second Boer War.
- a group representing the Three Fates inside the Leeson Street gate a gift from the German people in thanks for Irish help to refugees after World War II
- the Yeats memorial garden with a sculpture by Henry Moore
- a bust of James Joyce
- a bronze statue at the Merrion Row corner of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the leader of the 1798 rebellion. Flanked by monoliths, it was immediately nicknamed 'Tonehenge'.
- a memorial to the Great Famine of 1845-1850 by Edward Delaney

Opening Times

Gardens Open:
Monday-Saturday 07.30,
Sunday and Holidays 09.30

Gardens open Christmas Day 10.00-13.00

The gardens are closed according to daylight hours

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Ticket Prices

Disabled Facilities

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More Information

Telephone: 00 353 (0) 1 475 5287
Email: info@heritageireland.ie

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