Black Church and King's Inns Travel Guide

Leaving Parnell Square at the northwest corner and following Gramby Row round brings you to the Black Church (or St Mary's Chapel of Ease) in St Mary's Place - a sinister, brooding building with spiky finials. Legend has it that St Mary's and other similar massive Protestant churches built during the 1820s were designed so that they could be turned into defensive positions should the Catholics attack. As you walk down Dorset Street and into Bolton Street, everything speaks of urban deprivation: rubbish blowing in the gutters, broken glass, barred shop windows. Running off Bolton Street is Henrietta Street; dowdy as it is now, it was once the most fashionable street in Dublin and was one of the first sites of really big houses in the city, two of which (numbers 9 and 10, at the far end) were designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. These adjoin the impressive King's Inns - home of the Irish Bar - designed by James Gandon, architect of the Four Courts and the Custom House. During the daytime you can walk through the courtyard to the Inn's garden from which the grandeur of Gandon's building can be truly appreciated. At the west end of the garden is the exit to Constitution Hill. It was from here that St Patrick admired the city he had just converted to Christianity, though the great saint's view was not blocked by the tower blocks that litter the modern day hill. Walking along Constitution Hill into Church Street you reach St Michan's Church.