Located beside the medieval St. Audoen's Church in High Street, this garden-like park incorporates the first stone city wall, dating from the c.1100 and St. Audoen’s Arch, the last surviving entrance to the old city. St. Audoen’s Park, is widely recognised as an important open space which has the potential to play a key role in the city centre, providing improved access, permeability and enjoyment for locals and visitors.
The history of the site is richly layered. The park is located within the medieval City Walls, on the site of St. Audoen’s graveyard, and includes one of the original gates (St. Audoen’s Gate) and a section of the original City Walls. Layer upon layer of change is illustrated in historic maps, but the significance of the site and its spatial relationship with the surrounding urban fabric can still be sensed.
FATHER COLLINS PARK CLONGRIFFIN
I visited on a very wet windy day, in January 2016, but the windmills were locked-down ... maybe the weather was unsuitable. Back then I used a Sony A7RII and a Sony FE35 35mm F1.4 lens. The name Clongriffin is a modern invention, a concatenation of "clon", the anglicisation of cluain (the Irish language word for meadow), and griffin. A griffin, griffon, or gryphon (the Irish of which is ghrífín) is a mythical beast and may be an element in the name of the adjacent district, Balgriffin.
