Explore the beauty of Blackrock.
See the sights on a coastal walk Blackrock to Booterstown DART station with the sea on one side and Blackrock Park on the other.
Blackrock Park boasts green areas and trees, a well-equipped children’s playground, cycle paths and a pond with swans and the Peace Fountain. The story of the park is an unusual one.
With the construction of the railway close to the shoreline, the space between the shore and the railway created an area that flooded with sea water at high tide.
A smelly salty marsh became a cause of local discomfort for years until it was decided to fill the area in and create a park in the early 1870s.
The Williamstown Martello Tower, now located in Blackrock Park, was built between 1804 and 1806, before the park was established. When the tower was built, it was surrounded by sea water at high tide as it was built in the inter-tidal beach area.
It wasn’t until the filling in of the area to form the Blackrock Park that the tower found itself on dry land. The part of the tower visible today is actually the first floor (the ground floor is now buried).
Go a little further on past Blackrock Park to Booterstown Nature Reserve, a saltwater marsh, where you are likely to see a variety of flora and wild bird species such as snipe, redshank, mallard, moorhen and sedge warbler.
The 4 hectare area is sandwiched between the main road and DART line. It is a very important educational resource for biology students and the teaching of ecology.
Back in town see Blackrock’s Market Cross on Main Street. The cross dates from the eighth or ninth century. It is believed to have been a burial slab, as evidenced by the circle and band adorned on it, and to have belonged to the Celtic foundation of St. Mochanna in Monkstown.
The present day cross is smaller as parts have been removed from it. It was moved to Blackrock in 1678 by Walter Cheevers and was shifted to several different locations in the area before it was finally moved to the Main Street.
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