In April, Aoife and I decided it was the perfect night for a walk. After some discussion about maybe going to Phoenix Park, but I got it in my head that I wanted to go someplace else, because Phoenix Park is so busy and there’s lots of traffic.

The solution was to come to mind when I was searching for “local” parks. On Google, I learned about the 600,000 Euro investment being made in St. Catherine’s Park (which runs from Lucan to Leixlip) this summer to upgrade the facilities, and decided it might be someplace worth visiting.

Built around an old church and St. Catherine’s Abbey ruins, the park features open walking spaces, a woodland walk, a river walk, some farm animals behind a gate, plenty of open fields (including cricket grounds) and a huge brand new play area for the kids.

There is also an amazing array of fields of flowers – in early spring – it was yellow with daffodils and red with tulips. Once those had gone, the fields were violet… with blooming onions and pale lavender flowers. There’s also a section along the river with lots and lots of fragrant natural garlic which was in full white bloom.

Add in the few fruit trees, lack of traffic, a decent length walk from Maynooth to Lucan, and the easy access – well, I think I’ll be going back soon to see more than just the River walk and the walk around the open fields.

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