Minister O’Donovan announces plans for Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park

Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW), Patrick O’Donovan, T.D., today announced plans submitted to Dublin City Council to restore and upgrade the historic Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park. The conservation and improvement of visitor facilities at the site will enable the OPW to better present this significant military building to the public.

Speaking at the Magazine Fort, Minister O’Donovan said:

“The OPW and I are dedicated to improving both accessibility to and the visitor experience in the Park, which I regard as an important national amenity. Visiting military sites and buildings is an increasingly popular segment of the international tourism market and the investment proposed will contribute to the State’s tourism offering. With the proposed project, we will support the care and conservation of our national heritage estate and enhance the visitor infrastructure on site and in the Phoenix Park.”

Investment for the enhancement of the Phoenix Park as a heritage site under the National Development Plan allowed the OPW to commission a review of the visitor experience in the Phoenix Park in 2018 supported by our strategic partners Fáilte Ireland. The ‘Phoenix Park Visitor Experience Strategic Review’ proposed a roadmap how this amazing resource could make a greater contribution to our local, national and international tourism economy through sensitive enhancement of visitor infrastructure and the preservation of its unique heritage features, including the Magazine Fort.

The OPW proposes to conserve the Fort and to open it as an exciting new interactive visitor experience that will bring to life the unique military history of the Fort through the centuries. Aspects of the Magazine Fort, such as the ramparts, will be conserved and refurbished to provide a visitor Rampart Walk with views over the Park, towards the City and further to the mountains. The unique Magazine Stores themselves will be restored and refurbished to accommodate an immersive interpretative experience of the history of the fort, including a curated sound and light installation. The visitor information and facilities will be accommodated within the existing 1801 buildings. The immediate surrounding landscape will be activated by a Moat Walk within the old ditched ravelins.

The Fort itself is positioned within the military landscape of the Liffey Valley in close proximity to the Irish National War Memorial Gardens and the Royal Hospital Kilmainham to the south and Arbour Hill and Grangegorman Military Cemeteries to the east and north. The proposed Heritage and Military Trail on this side of the City would find, in the Fort, a suitable new focus as a visitor centre for the Park and its southern environs.

Refurbishment works to the overall Magazine Fort will create a new public amenity within the Phoenix Park. The development will consist of repair, conservation, change of use, and minor additions and alterations to it, and ancillary works to a number of buildings in the Magazine Fort to facilitate access and use to the public.

-ENDS-

For more information or a copy of the planning application, please contact the OPW press office at pressoffice@opw.ie

Photography will be circulated to media after the event. Additional images can be requested from Leon Farrell, Photocall Ireland at leon@photocallireland.com or 086 6386379

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Notes to Editors

Brief History of the Magazine Fort

The Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park is the major surviving Magazine Fort in the country. The complex has had a long history of continuous use spanning three centuries. It is considered to have special architectural, military, historical, social and archaeological interest. The highly recognisable form of the fort makes it one of the Phoenix Park’s most important landmarks. The Magazine Fort is a Protected Structure in the Dublin City Council Development Plan 2016 – 2022.

Construction of the Magazine Fort (formerly the Royal Magazine Fort), designed by John Corneille Junior, began from c.1736 on the high ground occupied by the Phoenix House (1611), a strategic location for military purposes with commanding views of the city and surroundings. The fort was built for the storage of gunpowder and was managed by the Military Authorities until 1988 when it was decommissioned and transferred to the Office of Public Works. The fortification is a typical square plan with four demi-bastions and a dry moat.

A number of structures ranging from the early eighteenth century to the twentieth century are found within the rampart walls, the earliest of which are two gunpowder magazines. A third magazine designed by Thomas Eyre, Surveyor General, was built between the existing two in 1758. A ravelin was added to its east side in 1801 by Francis Johnston to provide accommodation for the officers and soldiers of the fort and their families.

Architecturally the complex is the product of successive phases of adaptation and addition, typical of an enclosed military site. The Fort occupies a strategic location within the Phoenix Park within which it stands out as one of its main architectural landmarks.

The Magazine Fort is architecturally and historically a very significant site and unique to Dublin. It is a protected structure (DCC RPS No: 6760) and Recorded Monument (RMP No. DU018-007019-).