Weaver Park - Páirc an fíodóra Traditional Geocache
KowaiBaz: Time to let this one go. Thanks to all the visitors.
Weaver Park - Páirc an fíodóra
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Welcome to Dublin city's newest and coolest urban park! Weaver Park (Páirc na fíodóra) is situated between Cork Street and Ormond Street / Weaver's Square in Dublin 8, on the fringes of an area known as The Tenters.
This should be an easy to find magnetic micro, but you will need to bring some extra stealth in your kit bag.
The Cache
This area is busy. Very busy, in fact. Day and night. You will rarely find yourself completely alone at GZ. So mega-stealth is the order of the day here. I am giving an explicit hint to make your visit as inconspicuous as possible. Your laces might need retying as you enter the park. Use every trick you know here to remain unseen. Please consider signing the logbook at a location slightly removed from the actual cache site, and replace it carefully for the next visitor. You are looking for a black magnetic micro attached underneath a low (ground level) horizontal metal beam. As you walk under the entrance sign and pergola, it is on your left. Go to the second large cylindrical vertical support. Your cache is directly behind that support as described so there is no need to walk on the flower beds. Good luck!
History
When the Huguenots fled to Ireland in 1685, many of them settled in the Liberties area of Dublin. They were skilled weavers and created an industrial centre in this area now known as The Tenters. They started their business around the area now called Weaver’s Square. The cloth needed to be stretched and dried on tenter hooks in the fields between what is now O’Curry Avenue and Clarence Mangan Road. In 1814 Thomas Pleasants built a stone Tenter House on the land between Cork Street, Brickfield Lane, Brown Street and Ormond Street. Part of the original façade remains and is worth looking at; a short walk of <100 metres SSE towards the long closed (sadly) Weaver Takeaway.
The Tenter House built by Thomas Pleasants
The success of Dublin poplin was disastrous for the English cotton and woolen industries. The English Government issued new rules (no material may come to Ireland without first coming through England) and new taxes. This eventually caused the weaving industry in Dublin to decline. This area was still an open field at the beginning of the 20th century. After the decline of the linen trade, the land was used for market gardening until the houses in the Tenters were built around 1922. Barley still grows along the pavements and in the front gardens of the houses during the summer.
The Park
The flats that once stood here (Chamber St. Flats) were raised in 2008. Since 2013 there have been ongoing talks with Dublin City Council about the use of this site as a public park. The park was finally approved by DCC in January of this year.
The main entrance passes beneath a pergola inspired by the timber frames of the Tenters. The playground unit incorporates mock building façades onto Chamber St. to resemble the Dutch Billy gable fronted houses that once lined the street. The play equipment is designed to make reference to the historical heritage of the area as being central to Dublin’s cloth working and leather tanning industry. This provides the opportunity to communicate this aspect of the local heritage to the children using the play area.
The skateboard group Skate D8 were instrumental in getting serious consultations going at the outset. The new park has some skateboard facilities (a small shallow bowl) but all of the pathways and raised bed surrounds are polished concrete (bereft of metal balls or strips) with their interests in mind.
The layout has incorporated many features to provide for a diverse group of users such as the reclining mound, a flat grassy space, the aforementioned playground, pathways, trees, bike parking and a calisthenics area. As there are no formal boundaries this innovative design, the park is "open" 24/7!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Zntargvp, haqrearngu, YUF nf lbh ragre haqre gur cretbyn