St Kevin's Park

Name: St Kevin's Park
Address: Camden Row, Dublin 8, Portobello, Dublin, IE
Telephone: 01 222 5278

Overview

St Kevin's Park is a peaceful walled park on Camden Row, just off Wexford and Camden Street on the south side of the city centre. It surrounds the ruins of St Kevin's Church and its old graveyard, with the gravestones lined up along the walls.

Few visitors find it, which makes it one of the calmest spots near the busy Camden Street strip, and a surprisingly rich place for wildlife.

History

The church ruin dates from around 1780, but there has probably been a church on this site since before the Normans. The ground was used for burials for centuries. Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley, executed for treason in 1584, was buried here.

The site was developed as a park in the 1960s and officially opened in 1971. Before it opened, the gravestones were catalogued and most were moved and set upright along the boundary walls, where you can still read them.

Nature

At least 19 species of birds have been recorded here, including robins, wrens, blue tits and blackbirds, along with hedgehogs, foxes and wood mice. The ivy on the church and walls is especially valuable: it gives nesting sites all year and nectar for bees and butterflies. Three species of bat have been recorded in the park: Leisler's bat, the common pipistrelle and the soprano pipistrelle.

Getting there

St Kevin's Park is on Camden Row, Dublin 8, between Camden Street and Heytesbury Street, about ten minutes' walk from St Stephen's Green. The Harcourt Luas stop (Green Line) is close by, and the Iveagh Gardens and St Stephen's Green are a short walk away.