The Irish Times

UCD

As the final academics and students leave Earlsfort Terrace, in central Dublin, next week and make their way to join their colleagues at UCD's Belfield campus, it's a good time to look at what's going on within those 320 acres that lie just four kilometres from the heart of the city. In the 1930s, when Belfield House was purchased to create space for university sporting facilities, the area was considered to be rural. Wealthy Dubliners had for years built their country houses in such bucolic spots as Dundrum, Blackrock and Donnybrook, and it was to these places that they would escape from the thick of the city during the summer. In fact, the Belfield campus - which, with its 22,000 students and 1,000 academics, makes up a community the size of Arklow - is built on 11 such estates, and seven of the grand houses remain. To the thousands who pass through every year, Belfield is a place of cement, stone, grass, trees, a lake and, of course, learning (with some parties and time in the bar thrown in). But for many thousands more, it's a bit of a mystery. With the Clonskeagh gate regularly closed to prevent it from becoming a commuter rat run, chances are you could live nearby all your life but never venture in.