St Stephen's Green is an inner-city public park within the city center. The park is rectangular, surrounded by streets that once formed major traffic arteries through Dublin city center.Until 1663 St Stephen’s Green was a marshy common on the edge of Dublin, used for grazing. In that year Dublin Corporation, seeing an opportunity to raise much needed revenue, decided to enclose the center of the common and to sell land around the perimeter for building. The park was enclosed with a wall in 1664. The houses built around the Green were rapidly replaced by new buildings in the Georgian style and by the end of the eighteenth century the Green was a place of resort for the better-off of the city. Much of the present-day landscape of the square comprises modern buildings, some in a replica Georgian style, and relatively little survives from the 18th and 19th centuries.
While the central park of St Stephen's Green is one of three ancient commons in the city, its current layout owes much to the restorations of the 1800s.
The grounds are roughly rectangular and are centred on a formal garden. One of the more unusual aspects of the park lies on the north west corner of this central area - a garden for the blind with scented plants, which can withstand handling, and are labelled in Braille.Further north again is a large lake. Home to ducks and other water fowl, the lake is fed by an artificial water fall, spanned by O'Connell bridge, and fronted by an ornamental gazebo. The lakes in the park are fed from the Grand Canal at Portbello.
It was really nice to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and enjoy some quiet time watching the ducks and seagulls in the pond and enjoying the fountains.
