Richview House
The name Richview comes from Richview House, built in the 1820s on land which extended from the north of Palmerston Park, south to the river Dodder. Miss Elizabeth Mageough acquired Richview from Reverend Fox and lived there with her brothers who predeceased her. On her death she bequeathed funds to set up the Mageough Home on Cowper Road ‘for the habitation, support and clothing for aged females professing the protestant faith.’ In the 1950’s, land at the south end of Richview House was sold and Richview Park was developed.
The Battle of Rathmines
One of the most decisive battles in the history of Ireland took place in 1649 at the south side of Palmerston Park during the English Civil war. James Butler, Duke of Ormonde, Viceroy of Ireland and a Royalist took up his position in Rathmines but his lack of organisation against the Parliamentarian Col Michael Jones and with a rumour that Cromwell had landed (false) the Royalists broke ranks and fled. Cromwell referred to the victory.
‘This is an astonishing mercy, so great and seasonable, that indeed we are like them that dreamed’.
If the outcome of the Battle of Rathmines had been different it might well have changed the course of Irish history. The area adjacent to Palmerston Park is listed on the maps as The Bloody Fields as so many were killed on the site.
Palmerston Park
The lands at Rathmines once formed a portion of the property of the See of Dublin, part of the Parish of St Peter. In 1382 William de Moenes came into possession of the Area. Later in the 17th century Sir George Radcliffe councillor to the then Viceroy built a great mansion in Rathmines and in the 18th century the lands came into the possession of the Temple family. In 1746 Henry first Viscount Palmerston came into the lands. The grounds at Palmerston were offered by Lord Palmerston’s Agents to the commissioners in 1881 as a public park on the condition that the commissioners would take into charge several of the roads on the Palmerston estate.
The park was railed in 1893 and landscaped by William Sheppard. The name for the estate is said to have come from an ancient Irish name Stiguaire, attached to Palmerston in Co Dublin, the area from which Lord Palmerston took his title. The Irish version of the road sign on Palmerston Road still bears this version.
Although the area was largely middle class and strongly Unionist in the early 20th century it also had a long tradition of Republicanism with many of those involved in 1916 living in the area.
In 1878 the Dublin Central Tramways Company ran a line to Palmerston Park.
The houses around Palmerston Park were built between 1870 and 1880 and all are protected structures overlooking the designed layout of the park.
Palmerston Park
Designed by William Sheppard Landscape Gardener, of Dublin. William Sheppard was born of English parents on 18 April 1842 in Hamilton, Bermuda, where his father, a British soldier, was stationed. William trained and worked as a gardener in England before coming to Ireland when he was about twenty-nine or thirty. He was the probably the best-known landscape architect in Ireland in the thirty years between 1880 and the First World War.
He died at home in Ranelagh on 11 December 1923 and was buried in Mount Jerome cemetery. His wife, Jemima (née Tiller), also from Fordingbridge, whom he married in Arklow on 23 May 1872, had predeceased him in 1900. He commissioned a stained-glass window to her memory from Kempe & Co. of London, which was erected in the north choir aisle of St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin. Their son William Tiller Sheppard (b.1873) joined his father’s landscape business.
Past & Present
- Dr W F Trench Professor of English Literature in Trinity College. In 1913 the formation of An Oige, the Irish Youth Hostelling Association was planned in Grianblath.
- George Johnstone Stoney, Scientist, lived in both No 3 and No 9, Palmerston Park. He introduced the term Electron into science.
- No 3 Palmerston Park, Mount Temple School better known as Miss Sweeney’s, Elizabeth Yeats gave painting classes. Pupils included Melanie Le Broquy and Louis Le Broquy.
- W Tighe Hamilton, Inventor, lived at The Orchards known for his inventions of labour saving machines.
- Balnagowan a three storey Scottish Baronial villa was built in the early 1870’s by the Ross family and designed by Perth architect Andrew Heaton who designed three Dublin Presbyterian churches.
- The Museum of Childhood used to be to the rear of No 20 Palmerston Park.
- Eastwell No 12, Palmerston Park, the Methodists Widows Home, opposite the entrance to the park is one of the oldest institutions in the city founded in 1767.
- Trinity College Botanic Gardens, Palmerston Park commenced in 1687. It moved to its current location in 1967.
- Richview House Miss Elizabeth Mageough resided at Richview House and when she died she left any residue in her estate to build a place for elderly ladies of the Protestant faith. The land was purchased from the Rt Hon Cowper Temple. It was designed by Rawson Carroll in 1871 who also designed Lord Palmerston’s estate home at Mullaghmore, Co Sligo.
Protected Structures
The Record of Protected Structures lists all protected structures and buildings in Dublin. This includes structures of architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, social, scientific or technical importance. DCC Zoning MAP Record of Protected Structures noted with RED asterisk.
