People's Flower Gardens, Phoenix Park

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free for everyone; no ticket, booking or membership card is needed.

ParkingNo car park

Arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport.

Parking details

OPW names no car park for the gardens. The nearest Phoenix Park car parks, none with a published tariff, are Lord's Walk beside Dublin Zoo (about 260 cars, opens 09:45, closes an hour before dark) and the two cricket club car parks off Chesterfield Avenue (open 09:45). Dublin Bus 99 stops at the People's Gardens every 30 minutes from 09:00 to 18:00 on its way from Parkgate Street to the visitor centre; routes 25 and 26 serve Parkgate Street and 11 and 46A the North Circular Road gate; Heuston Station and the Luas red line are a short walk from the main gate.

Driving pin: OPW's own pin by the People's Garden Lodge on Chesterfield Avenue, a few minutes' walk inside the Parkgate Street gate.

About

A nine-hectare corner of the vast Phoenix Park, just inside the Parkgate Street gates, is given over to the People's Flower Gardens, an enclosed and immaculately manicured Victorian flower garden. The grounds were laid out around 1840 and opened in 1864 as the Promenade Grounds, and they still display Victorian horticulture at its best: formal bedding schemes in vivid colour, lawns and specimen trees between tarmac paths, a large ornamental lake with its waterfowl, picnic areas and a children's playground. The gardens also hold Ireland's National HIV and AIDS Monument, the corten steel 'Embraced Loop' of 2023, commissioned by the OPW. Unlike the surrounding park, which never closes, the gardens have their own gate hours, opening at 08:00 on weekdays, 10:30 on Saturdays and 10:00 on Sundays and closing between 16:00 in midwinter and 21:30 in midsummer. Entry is free, Dublin Bus 99 stops at the gate, and dogs are welcome on a lead away from the playground.

ClosedPick a day for times and prices

Until 28 Feb: Weekdays 08:00–18:30; Sat 10:30–18:30; Sun 10:00–18:00
From 1 Mar: Weekdays 08:00–18:00; Sat 10:30–18:00; Sun 10:00–18:00

Today, Saturday 24 October

People's Flower Gardens, Phoenix Park10:30 – 18:30

Free entry

Opening times may change at short notice.

Open all year with gate hours by month: January and December weekdays 08:00 to 16:00, Saturday 10:30 to 16:00, Sunday 10:00 to 16:00; February and November to 17:00; March to 18:00; April and September to 20:00; May and August to 21:00; June and July to 21:30; October weekdays and Saturdays to 18:30, Sundays to 18:00. Allow about an hour. No toilets or cafe in the gardens; the Victorian Tea Rooms are on Chesterfield Avenue near the zoo.

The playground, open 09:30 until an hour before sunset, was partly closed for maintenance works on 19 October 2026. Dogs are not allowed in the playground.

Dogs: Pet dogs are allowed on a lead throughout the gardens but not in the playground. The surrounding Phoenix Park, free at all hours: dogs under control, on a lead near the deer, on cycle lanes and near roads, not in playgrounds or the Ashtown walled garden. In the surrounding park, signed restrictions near the deer at the rut (mid October to early November) and fawning (June and July).

Photo: A bed of red begonias around a group of palms between the tarmac paths of the People's Flower Gardens in Phoenix Park. Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_People%27s_Flower_Gardens_in_Phoenix_Park_-_geograph.org.uk_-_7877465.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.