With today being such a warm, sunny day I decided to visit The Casino at Marino, somewhere that I had been planning to visit for a long time.

Unfortunately it was closed, it doesn't open until the 26th of April and remains open daily from 1000 - 1700 until the 24th of October 2012.

It didn't matter that it was closed, I didn't really expect it to be open before Easter. It was just a nice place to have some lunch.

Located just off the Malahide Road on Dublin's northside the Casino was never a gambling establishment but was a 'little house' on James Caulfeild's Marino Estate. Caulfeild was Earl of Charlemont and a lover of all things Italian, having spent many years doing the Grand Tour in Italy and France.

In the late 1750s he had Architect Sir William Chambers design this neo-classical building overlooking Dublin Bay and the Wicklow Mountains. Surprisingly the building houses sixteen rooms on three floors, even though externally it looks as if it is a single-roomed structure. The three windows on the east, west and south faces all serve several rooms with light. The building wasn't finished until 1773 and Chambers never visited.

Chambers designed four of the columns to act as drainpipes taking rainwater away from the roof and the large urns on the roof serve as chimneys.

Interestingly, one of Ireland's greatest architects, James Gandon, apprenticed with Sir William Chambers.

Heritage Ireland manage The Casino at Marino and it is somewhere that I plan to return to when it re-opens. It did make a nice spot for lunch, with no-one around it was quite a peaceful place and it was easy to get a few pictures.