Howth Head ( ; ''Ceann Bhinn Éadair'' in Irish) is a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

northeast of the city of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, within the governance of

Fingal Fingal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which ...

County Council. Entry to the headland is at

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location * S ...

while the village of

Howth Howth ( ; ; ) is a peninsular village and outer suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The district as a whole occupies the greater part of the peninsula of Howth Head, which forms the northern boundary of Dublin Bay, and includes the ...

and the

harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...

are on the north-eastern face. Most of Howth Head is occupied by the Hill of Howth, though there are other regions, such as the tombolo at Sutton, extensive beaches on the northern shores, and small ones in other parts. The Baily Lighthouse is on the southeastern part of Howth Head. Nearby are the districts of Baldoyle and

Portmarnock Portmarnock () is a coastal town in County Dublin, Ireland, north of the city of Dublin, with significant beaches, a modest commercial core and inland residential estates, and two golf courses, including one of Ireland's best-known golf clubs. , ...

, and adjacent is the nature reserve of North Bull Island.

History

The earliest mention of the peninsula may be on a map attributed to

Claudius Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine, Islamic, and ...

, where it was called ''Edri Deserta'' or in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

(''Edrou Heremos'', Edar's isolated place). Here it was portrayed as an island, but it is not clear if this was due to actual separation from the headland or inaccurate information available to the cartographer. Other writers think that ''Edrou'' was actually Lambay Island, from Greek (''hedra'') "sitting place or ships. The peninsula has been occupied since at least the 3rd millennium BC, with two

midden A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...

s found, and a

dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ...

dating back to around 2200 BC. It features in several Irish legends. A fishing settlement developed at Howth, and the area developed under the Norman St. Lawrence family, who owned most of Howth Head from the late 1100s until the 20th century, with the residual main estate sold in 2019. In the 19th century, electric tramlines to and over Howth Head made the whole hill more accessible.

Location and topography

Originally an island, Howth Head is connected to the mainland via a narrow strip of land, or

tombolo A tombolo is a sandy or shingle isthmus. It is a deposition landform by which an island becomes attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or bar. Once attached, the island is then known as a tied island. The word ''t ...

, and forms the northerly bound of the great crescent of

Dublin Bay Dublin Bay () is a C-shaped inlet of the Irish Sea on the east coast of Ireland. The bay is about 10 kilometres wide along its north–south base, and 7 km in length to its apex at the centre of the city of Dublin; stretching from Howth He ...

, roughly corresponding to Dalkey Hill and

Killiney Hill Killiney Hill () is the southernmost of the two hills which form the southern boundary of Dublin Bay, the other being Dalkey Hill. These two hills form part of Killiney Hill Park. Crowned by a monument, Killiney Hill is 153 metres high and has v ...

in the south. Most of the headland is hilly, with peaks such as the 171 m Black Linn, by the Ben of Howth, on a side road beyond the Green Hill Quarries at the Loughereen Hills, Shielmartin Hill (163 m) overlooking Carrickbrack Road and Carrickbrack and Dun Hill. There are also craggy areas such as Muck Rock (Carrickmore), and Kilrock. Howth has an extensive and varied coastline, and there are steep sea cliffs around parts, especially on the north coast. Key points on the coast, clockwise from Sutton, include Cush Point, Claremont Strand, the small headland at Howth village, Balscadden Bay, Kilrock, the Great and Little Baily, Lion's Head, Doldrum Bay, the Needles, Drumleck Point, Red Rock and Sutton Strand. Due to the shape of the landform, and its rocky nature, with thin soil covering, Howth features multiple streams and several fast-running streams, due to hard rock under a thin soil layer. These include the Bloody Stream, Coulcour Brook, the Boggeen Stream, the Offington Stream, the Whitewater Brook, the Balsaggart Stream, and the Carrickbrack and Santa Sabina Streams.

Fauna and flora

The cliffs support a large colony of seabirds, notably

razorbill The razorbill (''Alca torda'') is a North Atlantic colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus ''Alca (bird), Alca'' of the family Alcidae, the auks. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (''Pinguinus impennis' ...

s, common guillemots, fulmars, kittiwakes and cormorants. The scrubland above supports several heathland species including skylarks, meadow pipits, common whitethroats, linnets, stonechats and whinchats. The most commonly seen birds of prey are

kestrels The term kestrel (from , derivative from , i.e. Ratchet (instrument), ratchet) is the common name given to several species of predatory birds from the falcon genus ''Falco''. Kestrels are most easily distinguished by their typical hunting behavio ...

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known simply as the peregrine, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family (biology), family Falconidae renowned for its speed. A large, Corvus (genus), cro ...

s and common buzzards. Gorse grows in many places on the headland. Fires are frequent during dry summers. Thirty-one non-native plants were recorded in 2018 from Howth Head.

Transport

There are two railway stations on or near the head. Sutton station is on the northern edge of the

between Sutton and Baldoyle, and Howth station is on the head in the village of Howth. Both are served by

Dublin Area Rapid Transit The Dublin Area Rapid Transit system (stylised as DART) is an electrified commuter rail railway network serving the coastline and city of Dublin, Ireland. The service makes up the core of Dublin's suburban railway network, stretching from Gre ...

trains and have regular services to and from Dublin city centre. Historically the Hill of Howth Tramway ran between the stations around the head between 1901 and 1959. Additionally Dublin Bus routes serve the headland. A full road network accesses most parts, although some are only reachable by some of the many footpaths.

Gallery

File:Howth Head3656c.jpg, Howth Head viewed from on the North Bull Island in

File:Howth 01.JPG, Cliffs at Howth Head with Baily Lighthouse in the distance File:IRL - Howth Baily - Co. Dublin 001.JPG, Baily Lighthouse at the southeast end of Howth Head File:The Baily Optic (7479345672).jpg, Optic from Baily lighthouse, installed in 1902 and removed in 1972 when the lighthouse was modernised File:Howth 02.JPG, Walk on Howth Head

Leisure

Howth is a popular destination for day-trippers from the capital, accessible by car, bus and one of the northern termini of the

train system (DART). Hikers can choose from a wide range of routes, including the Cliff Walk, the Cliff Path Closed Loop, or making for the ancient

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

on one of Howth's several summits. On clear days, the Wicklow Mountains can be seen, with Dublin city below. Slieve Donard, an 852-metre peak in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

may also be visible - a distance of . Quite frequently,

Snowdon Snowdon (), or (), is a mountain in Snowdonia in North Wales. It has an elevation of above sea level, which makes it both the highest mountain in Wales and the highest in the British Isles south of the Scottish Highlands. Snowdon i ...

(1,085 m) in Snowdonia National Park in Wales can also be seen - a distance of .

Cultural references

Howth Head is the location where Leopold Bloom proposes to Molly in

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's '' Ulysses''. In the short story 'Eveline', another work by

from the collection ''

Dubliners ''Dubliners'' is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. It presents a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were writ ...

'', it is mentioned that Eveline and her family once had a picnic on the Hill of Howth. Howth Head is also central to Joyce's final work, ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It was published in instalments starting in 1924, under the title "fragments from ''Work in Progress''". The final title was only revealed when the book was publishe ...

,'' in which one of the principal characters, HCE, is, among other things, representative of the mountain. Howth Head is mentioned in the lyrics of the title track of

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer. Bush began writing songs at age 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape. In 1978, at the ...

's 1989 album, '' The Sensual World'': '...took six big wheels and rolled our bodies / off of Howth Head and into the flesh, mmh, yes...'. The song is inspired by

Molly Bloom Molly Bloom is a fictional character in the 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' by James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contribu ...

's soliloquy in Joyce's ''Ulysses''. The peninsula also features in the backdrop of multiple paintings by Irish artist

William Orpen Major (United Kingdom), Major Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, (27 November 1878 – 29 September 1931) was an Irish artist who mainly worked in London. Orpen was a fine draughtsman and a popular, commercially successful painter of portrai ...

(1878-1931) and by American artist James Whistler. Sir William Orpen - Grace reading at Howth Bay

Howth Head is the setting of two scenes from the Tony Award-winning musical "Once."

References

External links

Howth Coast Guard Cliff and Coast Rescue UnitHowth Lifeboat StationHowth Head - pictures on the Travvi
{{coord, 53.37923, N, 6.07201, W, source:placeopedia, display=title Headlands of the Republic of Ireland

Head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

Important Bird Areas of the Republic of Ireland Landforms of Fingal Tombolos Peninsulas of County Dublin