8. IRELAND'S VERY FIRST
NATIONAL PARK

On 1 January 1933 the Muckross Estate became Ireland’s very first National Park. It was known as the Bourn Vincent Memorial Park in memory of the family who had gifted it to the Nation. The Park then covered an area of 4,300 hectares (over 10,000 acres). It formed the nucleus of the present Killarney National Park, which was greatly extended during the 1970s through donations and land purchases by the State.

 

Today Killarney National Park covers an area of c. 10,000 hectares  (c. 24,710 acres) and includes a wide diversity of habitats including woodlands, lakes, mountains, grasslands and bogs.