Ranelagh Gardens
Overview
Ranelagh Gardens is a small park beside the Luas line in Ranelagh, south Dublin, with a playground, trees and floral displays.
It stands on the site of the 18th-century Ranelagh pleasure gardens, where Richard Crosbie launched the first hot-air balloon flight in Ireland in 1785.
History
The Ranelagh pleasure gardens opened in 1775, named after Lord Ranelagh, who had similar gardens by the Thames in London. Dubliners came for concerts, fireworks and entertainment. On 19 January 1785 Richard Crosbie took off from the gardens in a hot-air balloon and landed in Clontarf, the first balloon flight in Ireland.
The gardens were later sold to an order of nuns, who enclosed them. The park you see today was designed in the 1980s, when the surrounding land was developed for housing.
Getting there
Ranelagh Gardens is off Park View and Ranelagh Road, Dublin 6, right by the Ranelagh Luas stop (Green Line), a few minutes from Ranelagh village. Dartmouth Square Park is a short walk north, and St Stephen's Green is a few stops away on the Luas.
Opening hours
Like most Dublin City Council parks, Ranelagh Gardens opens at 10am every day and closes around dusk, so closing time changes through the year:
- January and December: 5pm
- February and November: 5.30pm
- March: 6.30pm, then 7.30pm once the clocks go forward
- April and September: 8.30pm
- May and August: 9.30pm
- June and July: 10pm
- October: 7.30pm, then 6.30pm once the clocks go back
Parks with several gates may start closing up to half an hour before these times.
Good to know
- Free entry.
- Facilities: Playground.
- Wheelchair accessible.
- Run by Dublin City Council Parks: call 01 222 5278 with questions about the park.
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