Howth

After Brian Ború, the High King of Ireland, defeated the Norse in 1014, many Norse fled to Howth to regroup and remained a force until their final defeat in Fingal in the middle of the 11th century. Howth still remained under the control of Irish and localised Norse forces until the invasion of Ireland by the Anglo-Normans in 1169.

Without the support of either the Irish or Scandinavian powers, Howth was isolated and fell to the Normans in 1177. One of the victorious Normans, Armoricus (or Almeric) Tristram, was granted much of the land between the village and Sutton. According to the historian Samuel Lewis:

In 1177, Sir Amorey Tristram and Sir John de Courcy landed here at the head of a large military force, and totally defeated the Danish inhabitants in a sanguinary battle at the bridge of Evora, over a mountain stream which falls into the sea near the Baily lighthouse. This victory secured to Sir Amorey the lordship of Howth, of which his descendants have continued in possession to the present day, under the name of St. Laurence, which Almaric, third baron, assumed in fulfilment of a vow previously to his victory over the Danes near Clontarf, in a battle fought on the festival of that saint. The territory of Howth was confirmed to Almaric de St. Laurence by King John....[16]

Tristam built his first castle overlooking the harbour and the St. Lawrence link remained until 2019 (see Earl of Howth). The original title of Baron of Howth was granted to Almeric St. Lawrence by Henry II of England in 1181, for one Knight's fee.

Howth was a minor trading port from at least the 14th century, with both health and duty collection officials supervising from Dublin, although the harbour was not built until the early 19th century.

A popular tale concerns the clan leader and sometime pirate Gráinne O'Malley, who was rebuffed in 1576 while attempting a courtesy visit to Howth Castle, home of the Earl of Howth. In retaliation, she abducted the Earl's grandson and heir, and as ransom, she exacted a promise that unanticipated guests would never be turned away again. She also made the Earl promise that the gates of Deer Park (the Earl's demesne) would never be closed to the public again, and the gates are still open to this day, and an extra place is set for unexpected guests during formal dinners in the dining room.

Imprint of George IV's footsteps on the West Pier

In the early 19th century, Howth was chosen as the location for the harbour for the mail packet (postal service) ship. Construction began in 1807.[14] One of the arguments used against Howth by the advocates of Dún Laoghaire was that coaches might be raided in the badlands of Sutton (at the time Sutton was open countryside). However, due to silting, the harbour needed frequent dredging to accommodate the packet and the service was relocated to Dún Laoghaire in 1809, after £350,000 had been spent on Howth.[14] English King George IV visited the harbour in August 1821, which is remembered today by an imprint of his shoes (see left picture) carved by a local stonemason on the West Pier.[17]

Irish poet and writer William Butler Yeats was a resident of Howth in the 19th century. There is a blue plaque dedicated to Yeats at Balscadden House on Balscadden Road which was his cottage home from 1880 to 1883. The plaque contains the couplet “I have spread my dreams under your feet/ Tread softly because you tread on my dreams” from his poem 'Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven' (1899).[18][19] Howth would feature in Yeats writings. The first time is the 1893 essay 'Village Ghosts' recounting the paranormal folklore of the village and the second is in the poem 'Beautiful Lofty Things' (1938); "Maud Gonne at Howth station waiting a train".[20][21][22]

On 26 July 1914, 900 rifles were landed at Howth by Erskine Childers for the Irish Volunteers. Many were used against the British in the Easter Rising and in the subsequent Anglo-Irish War. Among the members of the Howth branches of the Irish Volunteers and Cumann na mBan who participated in this event were the well-known writers Padraic Colum and Mary Colum. Members of both the Howth Volunteers and Baldoyle section of the Irish Citizen Army participated in the Easter Rising in Dublin city and in Fingal. A strong local branch of Sinn Féin developed in the area and there was considerable local involvement in both the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War.[23]

The harbour was radically rebuilt by the Office of Public Works in the late 20th century (a documentary was done on the much-delayed project in 1986), with distinct fishing and leisure areas formed, and the installation of a modern ice-making facility. A new lifeboat house was later constructed, and Howth is today home to units of both the RNLI (lifeboat service) and the Irish Coastguard.

In 2019, Howth Castle and its demesne, including Ireland's Eye, were sold to Tetrarch Investment group, with an element of the site close to the demesne gate immediately sold on again for development, to Glenveagh Properties.[24]

Howth Head is one of the dominant features of Dublin Bay, with a number of peaks, the highest of which is Black Linn. In one area, near Shielmartin, there is a small peat bog, the "Bog of the Frogs". The wilder parts of Howth can be accessed by a network of paths (many are rights of way) and much of the centre and east is protected as part of a Special Area of Conservation of 2.3 square kilometres (570 acres), as well as by a Special Amenity Area Order.

The peninsula has a number of small, fast-running streams, three of which run through the village, with more, including the Bloody Stream, in the adjacent Howth Demesne. The streams passing through the village are, from east to west, Coulcour Brook (falling to Balscadden Bay), Gray's Brook or the Boggeen Stream (falling to the eastern end of the harbour), and Offington Stream (passing under Findlater's to the western side of the harbour). Other streams are met along the cliff walks, including the Whitewater Brook, with a tributary in a sunken area of plants and ponds, and then the Balsaggart Stream.[25]

Howth Lighthouse and Ireland's Eye

The island of Ireland's Eye, part of the Special Area of Conservation, lies about a kilometre north of Howth harbour, with Lambay Island some 5 km further to the north. A Martello tower exists on each of these islands with another tower overlooking Howth harbour (opened as a visitor centre and Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio on 8 June 2001[26]) and another tower at Red Rock, Sutton. These are part of a series of towers built around the coast of Ireland during the 19th century.

Fisher's Cross

More than half of Howth Head, and of the Howth area, totalling around 1,500 acres, is subject to a Special Amenity Area Order, a provision of Irish law designed to protect areas of natural beauty or biodiversity. Prepared by the local authority, after a consultative process under a community environmental process known as SEMPA,[27] and formally proposed by Brendan Howlin as a minister, the order was developed in cooperation with a unit of Trinity College Dublin. It was made in 1999, confirmed in 2000, and is subject to 5-yearly reviews, the most recent having been conducted in 2015.[28] At the time of its making the majority of the lands covered formed part of the Howth Estate, with the other significant landowners being developers Treasury Holdings (85 hectares) and Gerry Gannon (33 hectares), and Howth Golf Club (48 hectares). The Council stated that the order was needed to protect the environment of the designated area by restricting development there, while recognising the need "to encourage tourism-related developments in the remainder of Howth".[29]

The SAAO area runs from the vicinity of Bottle Quay northeast to Muck Rock, east to the reservoir at Balkill, east and south around the Loughoreen Hills and Black Linn, then to the Summit, turning north along the line of the Coulcour Brook, then taking in a narrow part of Howth village, including the Martello Tower and East Pier, and Ireland's Eye.[30] It also covers a network of over 20 km of designated footpaths and rights of way, and it was stated that "all existing scenic views and prospects from the entire length of public footpaths and roads in the area are to be protected".[29]

Fingal County Council explained the need for the order, noting that between the 1940s and the present day "Howth has been transformed from a rural area to a suburban extension of Dublin city" and that its natural or "semi-natural" areas had shrunk from over 70% to around 40% of land area, while highly developed areas had risen from 14% to 30%.[29]

Panoramic view of Howth harbour, 2011

As a semi-isolated area, Howth's flora and fauna have been studied in some detail, and a Flora of Howth, for example, was issued in 1887.[31]

On the grounds of Howth Castle lies a collapsed megalithic dolmen (portal tomb), known locally as Aideen's Grave.

At the southeast corner of Howth Head, in the area known as Bail(e)y (historically, the Green Bayley) is the automated Baily Lighthouse, successor to previous aids to navigation, at least as far back as the late 17th century. This is the subject of a picture, Howth Lighthouse, from the Needles, by George Petrie, which appears in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835, with an attached poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.[32] At the end of the East Pier of Howth Harbour are the Howth Harbour Lighthouse, built in the 19th century and no longer in service, and the pole-mounted light which replaced it.[33]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Howth Light-House, a poetical illustration
by L. E. L.

In Howth village are St. Mary's Church and its graveyard, overlooking the harbour. The earliest church on this site was built by Sitric, King of Dublin, in 1042. It was replaced around 1235 by a parish church, when that function was moved from the church on Ireland's Eye, and then, in the second, half of the 14th century, the present church was built. The building was modified in the 15th and 16th centuries, when the gables were raised, a bell cote was built and a new porch and south door were added. The St. Lawrence family, of nearby Howth Castle, also modified the east end to act as a private chapel; inside is the tomb of Christopher St Lawrence, 2nd Baron Howth, who died in 1462, and his wife, Anna Plunkett of Ratoath.

Also of historic interest is a building known as The College or The Old College, on Abbey Street which was primarily constructed in the late 15th or early 16th century but also with earlier medieval elements.[34][35]

Drumleck Castle on a promontory in the Censure area of Howth was formerly on the Record of Protected Structures but removed as there were no structural elements remaining above ground to warrant retention. Alternative protection remains under the National Monuments Acts 1930–2004, as a Record Monument RMP Ref No. DU019-007.

• ^ By Swerve of Shore, Michael Fewer, (2002), ISBN 0-7171-3353-2, an account of the author's walk along the coast of County Dublin