Phoenix Park Conservation Management Plan

Landscape
To the north of Chesterfield Avenue, parts of the Park remain dedicated to state government functions
including Áras an Uachtaráin and Ashtown Castle and Visitor Centre. The landscape tends to be smaller in
scale with intimate domestic areas of parkland and gardens formed within each demesne. The more popular
public facilities including Dublin Zoo and the People’s Gardens, at the eastern end of the Avenue and nearest
to the city, also provide more intimate spaces to reflect their function as pleasure and recreation grounds. The
southern orientation of all the prominent demesnes place the areas once occupied by military facilities and
functions in the main view, perhaps with the intention of underlining the strength of 19th century government
backed by military might.
6.4 Views and Prospects
The Phoenix Park is a designed landscape laid out on a monumental scale with wide sweeping views of the
landscape and long vistas to important architectural features. Views are important in the Park landscape.
They provide integrity to the layout, enhance landscape character, give a sense of space and scale and
assist in creating visual interest. While the Park seems generally to be a flat plateau, the land actually falls
gradually from north to south. As a consequence, the Park has a generally southerly aspect and views. The
most elevated locations offer the best views across the plateau and south to the mountains. The river terraces
along the southern edge, which fall steeply from the plateau to the river, offer some of the most dramatic
views that in some cases include local features such as the River Liffey and the Irish National War Memorial
Gardens. The Park wall and recent urban development have ensured that views to the north and west are
thoroughly blocked and views eastwards are available only from a few areas close to the main gates on
Parkgate Street.
Decimus Burton made landscape improvements to open up, frame and enhance views with new features
and focal points. These are now woven into the mature fabric of the Park giving it character, interest and
structure. Burton’s design assumed that the Park would be seen from the elevated height of horseback or
carriage. By these means visitors would move around the Park at the moderate pace of a horse or a carriage
and the landscape would be revealed as a rolling sequence of views.
To facilitate enjoyment of the Park, Burton designed a network of drives that provided easy access by horse
drawn vehicle. These also provided views that would sustain the interest of the viewer. The drives, which
still provide the designed sequences of views, are arranged in a simple hierarchy:
1. Chesterfield Avenue: the most direct east - west route, designed to demonstrate power and control and to
provide impressive views of the three main demesnes and the Park landscape set against distant mountains.
Along its route are the principal monuments including the Phoenix Monument midway along the avenue
and an equestrian statue of Field Marshal Hugh Gough which once stood a short distance into the Park from
Parkgate Street and the Wellington Testimonial.
2. Looped drives provide a route around the outer fringes of the Park and links to Chesterfield Avenue
that pass the three demesnes, the various ornamented lodges, Dublin Zoo and several important viewpoints.
Some of these routes also pass through important ‘improved’ landforms such as the Khyber Pass, Furry Glen
and Oldtown Wood. These routes are laid out to provide a pleasant drive, on gentle gradients offering the
most important landscape views around the Park and south to the mountains.
3. Paths within areas such as Dublin Zoo and the People’s Gardens, and drives within the demesnes,
generally provide inward views of features within the area concerned, but sometimes allow outward views
into the Park.
42
THE PHOENIX PARK CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT PLAN