St Stephen's Green, Dublin

St Stephen’s Green is a public park and garden square, and its present landscape comes from William Sheppard’s design. The park covers 22 acres, making it the largest of Dublin’s parks set within Georgian garden squares. Its public life began again on Tuesday, 27 July 1880, when Lord Ardilaun formally reopened it.

The lake is a strong feature of the grounds, with ducks and other waterfowl, an artificial waterfall, and O’Connell Bridge crossing the water. An ornamental gazebo stands beside the lake, while the garden for blind visitors uses scented plants that can be touched and labels written in Braille. These details make the park more than a formal enclosure: they give different ways to experience it.

Look along the paths and you can trace the work of several designers. Arthur Neville shaped winding routes and iron fencing in 1815; William Sheppard later produced the landscape that survives today, with engineer A.L. Cousins and Lord Ardilaun involved in its creation.

The park was once a marshy common used for grazing, and access was restricted to nearby residents until public reopening was secured in 1877. During the Easter Rising, rebels dug positions here, but withdrew after British soldiers fired from the Shelbourne Hotel. Even then, gunfire paused so the groundsman could feed the ducks.