The Grove Wildlife Sanctuary is essentially a plot, maybe an acre or so, at the top of Morehampton Rd on the N11. It was donated to An Taisce by Kathleen Goodfellow, and what a good fellow to separate with this property, in 1979. The whole thing has the feel of the Miss Havishams about it and the aesthetic to boot. It’s the type of place that everyone local is aware of but no one has any solid information about. Having employed my journalistic expertise I have unearthed that Miss Goodfellow, as she is titled by An Taisce, wanted the property to be kept as a nesting site for birds and for it to be maintained by An Taisce I suppose, well, forever. An Taisce take out cursory and unobtrusive maintenance on the site every once in a while making sure not to disturb the birdie num-nums. Apparently the property is impossible to build on because the Swan River runs underground nearby I have never seen this river above ground or even heard of it before for that matter but I’ll take their word for it. At any rate the birdies are happy, they already have a lot of green spaces around what with Herbert Park and all, but I won’t be begrudging them for it. This type of small, sealed green space in urban area seems like a resoundingly positive idea with all that nasty global warming going about.