Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin.

Curvilinear Range

One of the unsung joys of Dublin City are its delightful Botanic Gardens set in its Northside suburb of Glasnevin around 3 miles from the city centre. Glasnevin is a village which has been swallowed up by the city but still has much charm and character due to its setting along the Tolka River and numerous historical and literary associations including with the poet Joseph Addison and the satirist Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It is a place I’m particularly fond of as my parents live not too far away and I went to junior school nearby so the gardens were my childhood happy hunting grounds after school. Even today they are a serious horticultural celebration with little commercialism and unlike Kew Gardens in London which charges a disgraceful 12.25 pounds entrance fee, here entry is free.

The soil of the Glasnevin Botanic Gardens is heavy alkaline boulder clay, which confines the growing of calcifuge plants such as rhododendrons and Ericas to specially prepared peat beds. There are, however, a wide range of habitats within the garden and these are incorporated within a botanical rather than geographical layout. They include special areas devoted to roses, ground cover plants, economic and poisonous plants, native plants and herbs and vegetables. Glasnevin also houses a large rockery, a bog garden, a wild garden and a double, curving herbaceous border which is a marvellous sight in summer.





In 1790, the Irish Parliament, with the active support of The Speaker of the House, John Foster, granted funds to the Dublin Society (now the Royal Dublin Society), to establish a public botanic garden. In 1795, the Gardens were founded on lands at Glasnevin. The original twenty-seven-acre site chosen for the garden lay outside the hamlet of Glasnevin on the former demesne of Thomas Tickell, a minor poet and ardent admirer of Joseph Addison, the statesman and writer. A survival from this period is a double line of yew trees known as Addison's Walk which Tickell probably planted in memory of his much-esteemed patron. The original purpose of the Gardens was to promote a scientific approach to the study of agriculture. In its early years the Gardens demonstrated plants that were useful for animal and human food and medicine and for dyeing but it also grew plants that promoted an understanding of systematic botany or were simply beautiful or interesting in themselves.


Print of original layout 1840


Current layout

One of the outstanding features of Dublin’s Botanic Gardens are the Curvilinear Range of glasshouses dating from 1843 to 1869 by Richard Turner. The glasshouses are the most significant wrought and cast iron buildings in Ireland and are one of the most important nineteenth century glasshouses surviving in Europe today. This beautiful long, low range of glasshouses is built of iron and has a distinctive, curved roof. Turner's glasshouses reflect the industrial age in its most advanced form with standardised components and prefabricated elements manufactured off-site for later site assembly. This use of wrought and cast iron was at the leading edge of building technology in the mid-nineteenth century. The repeal of punitive taxes on glass in the 1840s, coupled with French innovation in glass production gave Turner the option of using curved glass in long lengths. Turner is principally associated with his spectacular glasshouses in the Belfast Botanic Garden, Northern Ireland (1839), Glasnevin (1843-1869) and at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, U.K. (1848) but he also designed and manufactured some mundane things like boundary railings for Trinity College, Dublin, boilers, cisterns and even bedsteads.

In the 1990s it was fully restored by the Office of Public Works, with particular care being taken to restore the building faithfully. Unlike stone or brick with their own history of research and restoration techniques no such precedent existed for wrought and cast iron restoration. Wrought iron was replaced by mild steel in building at the beginning of the 20th century and is no longer available. This led the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to replace their original cast and wrought iron Palm House (designed by Decimus Burton, with modifications by Richard Turner) with a replica stainless steel building in the 1980s. However in Glasnevin instead of using steel they drop forged and machine hammered replacement wrought iron sections so what you see today is a very handsome conserved structure instead of a steel replica.


Herbaceous Border

Also restored is The Great Palm House which was built in 1884 containing the tropical tree collection and notable now for its cycads, while its side wings, house orchids and flowering pot plants. On the east side of the garden lies the Victoria or Aquatic House which was built in 1854 to protect the gigantic Amazon water lily - at that time only recently introduced and one of the wonders of the age. The lily can still be seen growing here during the summer months. On one side of this building lies the Cactus and Succulent House built in 1890, while on the other stands the Fern House - an aluminum glasshouse constructed in 1966 to replace an attractive Victorian octagonal conservatory. This Fern House is divided into separate compartments for tree ferns and tropical species. Here amidst dense foliage the visitor will find the native but rare Killarney fern Trichomanes speciosum and the Australian tree fern Todea barbara, which had been transferred here in 1969 from the old Trinity College Botanic Gardens and is reputed to be 400 years old.


Great Palm House



The gardens themselves now cover 19 hectares and are extremely pleasant to walk around due to the visual interest of the displays and the sloping site leading down to the Tolka River which has been enhanced with weirs, pools and a canal. Within the living collections at the gardens are over 300 endangered species from around the world and 6 species already extinct in the wild. These are a vital resource, like a Noah's Ark for the future. They lend themselves to a gentle clockwise circular stroll from the visitor centre at the entrance to browse the individual lawns, shrubberies and borders. The alpine collection in the rock garden is notable and behind the curvilinear range by the River Tolka head across the bridge onto Mill Field, an island in the river. Off this again over a charming foot bridge you come to a delightful Rose Garden which is easy to miss unless you know it’s there.




Weir on the River Tolka

The Irish National Herbarium is also based in the gardens and houses a collection of nearly ¾ million dried plant specimens. The visitor centre opened in 2000 and combines a lecture hall, restaurant and display area with exhibits relating to the history and purpose of the gardens. A series of 12 portraits by Anna O'Leary, show notable scientists and innovators associated with the development of Botany, as well as the establishment and growth of the National Botanic Gardens. A head of the famous Giant Irish Deer hangs on the wall. This male skull originally hung in Kilmacurragh House, which today is a satellite garden of the National Botanic Gardens.

Visitor Centre

Glasnevin, whilst a suburb of Dublin, still retains a village atmosphere with local shops and in the Addison Lodge (opposite the gardens) and the Tolka House (across the bridge) two good pubs for lunch and a drink. Glasnevin seems to have been founded by Saint Mobhi in the sixth (or perhaps fifth) century as a monastery. His monastery continued to be used for many years afterwards - St. Colman is recorded as having paid homage to its founder when he returned from abroad to visit Ireland a century after St Mobhi's death in 544. St. Columba of Iona is thought to have studied under St. Mobhi, but left Glasnevin following and outbreak of plague and journeyed north to open the House at Derry. The Protestant 17th Century Church of St. Mobhi is built on the site of the original monastery and hall.


O'Connell Monument - Glasnevin Cemetery

To generations of Dublin school children Glasnevin is known as "the dead centre of Dublin" due to the presence of the city’s main burial ground, Glasnevin Cemetery, which is the final resting place for thousands of ordinary citizens, as well as many Irish patriots. It opened in 1832 and is the most historically notable burial place in the country and the last resting place, among a host of historical figures, of Michael Collins, Charles Stewart Parnell, Arthur Griffith and Eamon DeValera. The main monument in it which is visible from the Botanic Gardens is a replica Irish Round Tower which is the tomb of the Irish 19th Century parliamentarian Daniel O’Connell. He led the campaign for Catholic Emancipation which led to the repeal of the “Penal Laws” and the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. Before that Catholics could not have their own graveyard’s and had to pay burial tithes to the established church. Some idea of the lingering effect of these laws, even after emancipation, can be seen in that the original entrance to the cemetery is not on the main road but off a side road in De Courcy Square and similarly the catholic cathedral in Dublin was not built on the main street but in a side street off the main thoroughfare, now called O’Connell Street. The pub in De Courcy Square named Kavenagh’s over the door is in fact called the “Gravediggers” by Dubliners. By tradition families of the deceased would leave money to buy the gravediggers a drink which they collected from the pub through a hole in wall between the pub and the graveyard, hence the nick name!

Glasnevin also has literary associations through Canon and Mrs. Patrick Delaney who lived in Delville Lodge on Glasnevin Hill (Now the site of the Bons Secours Hospital). They couple were friends of Dean Jonathan Swift and, through him, of Alexander Pope. Pope encouraged the Delaneys to develop a garden in a style then becoming popular in England - moving away from the very formal, geometric layout that was common. He redesigned the house in the style of a villa and had the gardens laid out in the latest Dutch fashion creating what was almost certainly Ireland's first naturalistic garden. The house was, under Mrs. Delany, a centre of Dublin's intellectual life. Swift is said to have composed many of his campaigning pamphlets while staying there. He and his life - long companion Stella were both in the habit of visiting, and Swift satirised the grounds which he considered too small for the size of the house. The plant collection from Delville, which was sold by Mrs. Delaney after her husband’s death, formed the basis of the Botanic Garden’s original collection when it first opened. Mary Delaney's interest in botany can be seen to the present day in most antique stores. She published a number of popular folios of her botanical illustrations based on her collection which were used to decorate the Georgian fashion for "Japan Ware". The Art of Japanning developed in 18th century England at the court of King George III, and Queen Charlotte. The art of applying paper cut outs to other items (decoupage) became very popular, especially the botanically inspired works of Mary Delaney.Japanning describes the European imitation of Asian lacquer work, originally used on furniture.


Solanum Glasnevin

One of the most popular sights in the garden is just inside the entrance, 'The last Rose of Summer' - a cultivar of the China rose R. chinensis 'Old Blush'. It was raised from a cutting taken from a rose at Jenkinstown House in County Kilkenny which, according to tradition, was the rose that inspired Thomas Moore to write his famous ballad. Over the past two centuries the gardens have played a central role in botanical and horticultural advancement in Ireland and the names of many common garden plants today, such as “Solanum Glasnevin” (Chilean potato vine) are a testament to the work done here. The gardens also incorporate a horticultural college passing this knowledge and love of plants to future generations.



The National Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin is Ireland's premier botanical and horticultural establishment and is a rewarding and attractive garden for gardeners and non-gardeners alike containing over 20,000 different plant species and cultivars including many exceptional specimens. It provides an excellent visitor attraction and an oasis of peace and tranquility a short distance from Dublin’s bustling city centre by taxi or on bus routes 11, 13 or 19. With its excellent visitor centre, restaurant and informative layout and signage it is a good place both to absorb the beauty of the gardens and recharge your own batteries. You won't be the first to so in its long history. From November 1948 to June 1949 the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein lived in Dublin. He stayed at the Ross Hotel, Parkgate Street, which is now the Aisling Hotel. During his time here, Wittgenstein used to visit the Botanic gardens. He would go to one of the hothouses and sit down and have a good ‘aul think. The period of Wittgenstein’s sojourn in Dublin coincided with the coldest winter on record - one that saw all domestic football cancelled as a result of the weather so maybe a hothouse in the Botanic Gardens was the most sensible place to be!