Enter the park through Park Gate, at its eastern tip. Chesterfield Avenue runs diagonally through the park from this gate to Castleknock Gate on the west side. A footpath leads off to the right immediately after you enter the park. Follow this to the Victorian People’s Flower Garden. Laid out by the landscape architect Decimus Burton in the 1830s and then called the ‘Promenade Gardens’, this is the only formally designed part of the park, with pretty flowerbeds, shrubberies and two small ponds within the area known as Bishop’s Wood.

Follow the path anticlockwise through the wooded area and around the ponds, then return to Chesterfield Avenue and turn right. On your left as you walk up the avenue is a graceless 204ft (63m) high granite pillar. This is the Wellington Testimonial, designed in honour of the ‘Iron Duke’ of Wellington, hero of Waterloo, by Sir Robert Smirke and built with funds raised by public subscription. Though born in Ireland, Wellington denied his Irishness: ‘Had I been born in a stable, would that make me a horse?’, he once asked. The monument was intended to be taller than it is, but the builders ran out of money before it reached its planned height. Perhaps the people of Ireland valued Wellington no more than he valued his Irish roots. Money was eventually scraped together to recommence work, and it was finally completed in 1861. The bas-reliefs around its plinth, depicting Wellington’s triumphs, are cast from the bronze of captured French guns, of which there was no shortage after Waterloo.

Proceed along Chesterfield Avenue, across Wellington Road, walk ahead and turn right to the Dublin Zoo entrance on the left. Opened in 1831, the zoo earns its place in history as the second oldest zoo in Europe. It has come on a bit since its early days, when its only inmate was a single wild boar. The zoo takes pride in its endangered species breeding programme – it began breeding lions as long ago as 1857, and film buffs will be interested to know that the original MGM lion was born here. Rhinos, giraffes, zebras and antelopes roam in the large, open African Plains section of the zoo.

Leave the zoo at the same location as the entrance, turn right to go to Lord’s Walk, then right on to the footpath that curves westward. Walk behind the Polo Club building on the left and continue until you glimpse the rather grand, white Palladian building through the trees on your right. Áras an Uachtaráin is the residence of the President of the Irish Republic. The building was designed by Nathaniel Clements in 1751 as a home for Phoenix Park’s Chief Ranger, but was subsequently developed into the country lodge of British Viceroys until Ireland gained independence. It became the official residence of Irish presidents in 1937.

Follow the path as it curves southwest to the Phoenix Column, an unmissable landmark standing ahead and to your left. This stone pillar, erected by Lord Chesterfield for the opening of the park in 1745, is said to mark the spot where the original spring that gave Phoenix Park its name rises. The monument now stands in the centre of a roundabout in the road. Feeling witty, Chesterfield had the column crowned with a effigy of a phoenix, rising with outstretched wings from its own ashes. The phoenix is, of course, an entirely mythical creature, so the sculptor had to use his imagination. The result is not entirely convincing.

Cross the road, turn left, (anticlockwise) at the Phoenix Column, then take the first left on Acres Road, almost doubling back on yourself. Follow Acres Road for about 300 yards (275m) and take the first right. The road curves back westward to the Papal Cross, which will have been in sight all the way. The 90ft (27m) steel crucifix marks the spot where Pope John Paul II held Mass before an audience of one million people when he visited Ireland in 1979.

To the west of the Papal Cross, and partially concealed behind various security barriers, stands an elegant 18th-century mansion. Deerfield was the home of Lord Cavendish, the British Chief Secretary for Ireland. Cavendish, with one of his aides, was assassinated in 1882 by nationalist extremists calling themselves ‘the Invincibles’, in what came to be known as the Phoenix Park Murders. The attack swayed public opinion in Britain against the Home Rule movement, and contributed to the political downfall of the Home Rule leader, Charles Stuart Parnell. This played into the hands of those nationalists who believed that Irish independence could never be achieved be peaceful means, and ultimately led to the tragedies of the Easter Rising and the Civil War. After independence, Deerfield passed into the hands of the Irish state, and is now the residence of the US Ambassador to Ireland. Famous guests have included John F. Kennedy, the first US President of Irish descent, who visited Dublin in 1963.

Retrace your steps from the Papal Cross to the Phoenix Column. Walk clockwise round it, crossing Chesterfield Avenue, and turn left on to Odd Lamp Road. After just a few paces, turn left onto the footpath (signposted Phoenix Park Visitor Centre), which leads across the grass to Ashtown Castle ahead of you. Built by an ancestor of Daniel O’Connell, this little tower house dates from a turbulent time. To make it easier to defend, there were no windows on the ground floor, and next to the door is a ‘murder hole’ through which a pistol could be fired at unwelcome visitors. Immediately to the west of the little castle is an attractive modern wooden building which houses the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre, with an interesting exhibition which follows the history of this patch of land from 3500BC to the 21st century. To leave the park, walk back to Odd Lamp Road and take North Road south to Ashtown Gate, from where you can catch buses back to the city centre.