Lansdowne Road
Ireland's great rugby and football ground stood here for decades, then came down in 2007 — the Aviva Stadium rose in its place three years later.
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This Ballsbridge site hosted Irish rugby and football internationals, two Heineken Cup finals (1999 and 2003), was a regular host of the FAI Cup Final from 1990, and drew concerts from U2 to Michael Jackson. The road itself is named after William Petty-FitzMaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, and the same man's separate earldom of Shelburne named Shelbourne Road just beside it.
What to look for
- The Lansdowne Road DART station, which sits directly adjacent to the site and once passed underneath the old West Stand
- Shelbourne Road nearby — named after the same William Petty-FitzMaurice in his separate role as Earl of Shelburne, a distinct title from the Marquessate that gave Lansdowne Road its name; both roads trace to the same man but different honours
- The Aviva Stadium footprint, which occupies the exact same ground as the demolished 49,250-capacity original
Lansdowne Road DART station drops you at the entrance; no other transport needed.
Lansdowne Road is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Dublin, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Dublin pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Dublin
- Aviva StadiumOne 51,711-seat bowl jointly owned by rugby and football — two governing bodies, one ground, no separate home for either.
- Dublin CastleThe river that gave Dublin its name still flows beneath your feet — and the building above it ran Ireland for 750 years.
- Croke ParkThe fourth-largest stadium in Europe holds 82,300 people — almost entirely for sports most of the world has never watched.
- National Library of IrelandIreland's paper memory — manuscripts, photographs, and newspapers free to open on the spot.
- St Patrick's CathedralIreland's national cathedral has never had a bishop — that role belongs to the rival church 400 metres up the road.
- Spire of DublinA 120-metre stainless-steel pin planted on the exact spot where an IRA bomb in 1966 — and a controlled demolition six days later — erased Nelson's Pillar.