Manly Oval, Manly, Guida per visitatori e cosa fare nei dintorni

Manly Oval is a sports ground on Sydney Road in Manly, Sydney, set beside the heritage-listed Ivanhoe Park. The open green space looks ordinary at first, but it sits on ground tied to a Victorian-era mansion, a camera obscura and a famous wildflower show.

The story behind it

Ivanhoe Park, the green space that wraps around the oval, has a layered past. Before the area became a public park, the site held a camera obscura built by Henry Gilbert Smith. It was a novelty attraction that cast a live image of the outdoors onto the walls of a tower looking over Manly.

The site later became associated with Marinella, a large gothic-style house with turrets, also known as Dalley Castle. It belonged to the politician William Bede Dalley. In the 1880s and 1890s the park hosted a wildflower show, with stalls of bouquets arranged into shapes such as hearts, harps and ships, plus Maypole dancing by children. The grounds were lit by Chinese lanterns at night. Today Ivanhoe Park is heritage listed.

What to look for

• Look through the grandstand as you walk through Ivanhoe Park, and you may spot an old wall in the distance.
• On that wall, find the two gargoyles, which are all that remains of Marinella, or Dalley Castle.
• Take in the sweep of the oval and the park around it, and picture the stalls, dancers and lanterns of the old wildflower show.
• Think about the camera obscura that once stood here, and how Manly looked when its tower projected the outside world indoors.

Tips for your visit

• Allow 15 to 20 minutes to walk through the park and find the gargoyle wall, longer if you stop to read around the area.
• Walk through in daylight, when the old wall is easiest to see from the grandstand side.
• Access to the oval itself can be limited on sports days, so check current conditions if you want to go in.
• Manly Corso and the beach are a short walk away, so it fits easily into a wider stroll around town.

See it on a quest

Manly Oval is one stop on Manly: Sydney's Playground, a self-guided walk through the area. You reach the oval on foot as part of a longer route, the app tells you about the place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle based on what is in front of you. One ticket covers the whole group, and you can start whenever suits you, with no guide and no group to join.