Portrane or Portraine () is a small seaside village located three kilometres from the town of

Donabate Donabate () is an outer suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, about north-northeast of Dublin, within the Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local government area of Fingal. The town is on a peninsula on Ireland's east coast ...

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 Dublin County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...

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 ...

. It is in the

barony Barony may refer to: * Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron * Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron * Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...

of Nethercross in the north of the county. Portrane has an approximately long sandy beach backed by sand

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s in places on the north end. There is a small carpark and access to the beach is restricted to pedestrians. At the very north end of the beach is a

National Heritage Area In the United States, a National Heritage Area (NHA) is a site designated by Act of Congress, intended to encourage historic preservation of the area and an appreciation of the history and heritage of the site. There are currently 62 NHAs, some o ...

, which is visited by various

migratory birds Bird migration is a seasonal movement of birds between breeding and wintering grounds that occurs twice a year. It is typically from north to south or from south to north. Migration is inherently risky, due to predation and mortality. The ...

during winter time.

Built heritage

There are several notable historic buildings in Portrane, including a 19th-century

martello tower Martello towers are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts. They stand up to high (with two floors) and typica ...

. Other notable examples include;

St. Ita's Hospital

Portrane's most prominent feature is Tower Bay, and Portrane asylum, more commonly known as

St. Ita's Hospital St. Ita's Hospital () is a mental health facility in Portrane in the north of County Dublin in Ireland. History The site selected for the facility, which covered , was the demesne surrounding Portrane House, the former home of the Evans family. ...

. Built in the early 1900s, the asylum is made up of a number of

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

red brick buildings which dominate the

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 ...

. Features within the main asylum building include two churches and an imposing clock tower. The building operated as a mental hospital for many years with it finally closing to inpatients in 2011 and outpatients in 2014 before being refurbished and repurposed as a modern mental health facility. Following the sale of the

Central Mental Hospital The Central Mental Hospital () is a mental health facility housing forensic patients in Portrane, Dublin, Ireland. The hospital, along with a community day centre for outpatients at Usher's Island, forms part of the National Forensic Mental Heal ...

in Dundrum in 2012 it was announced that it would relocate to the updated St.Ita's facility in Portrane. In the hospital grounds is a monument to

George Hampden Evans The Rt.Hon. George Hampden Evans (died 2 July 1842) was an Irish politician. Biography George was the eldest son of Captain Hampden Evans and his wife Margaret née Davis of Portrane, County Dublin. in 1805 he married Sophia Parnell, only dau ...

, a replica of an

Irish round tower Irish round towers ( (singular), (plural); Literal translation, literally 'bell house') are early medieval stone towers of a type found mainly in Ireland, with two in Scotland and one on the Isle of Man. As their name indicates, they were ori ...

Portrane castle

Portrane Castle (sometimes called Stella's Tower) is a 3-storey late medieval

castellated A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals t ...

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...

adjacent to St. Catherine's housing estate. Jonathan Swift's 'Stella',

Esther Johnson Esther Johnson (13 March 1681 – 28 January 1728) was an Englishwoman known to have been a close friend of Jonathan Swift, known as "Stella". Whether or not she and Swift were secretly married, and if so why the marriage was never made public ...

is said to have stayed there and given the castle its unusual nickname. The inquisition of 1541 mentions the castle as being a substantial structure with associated outbuildings, including a threshing house and hemp yard, while the

Civil Survey The Civil Survey was a cadastral survey of landholdings in Ireland carried out in 1654–1656. It was separate from the Down Survey, which began while the Civil Survey was in progress, and made use of Civil Survey data to guide its progress. Wher ...

of 1655 describes this site as an old castle with a thatched hall adjoining owned by the parsonage of Portrane. A later brick chimney can also be seen at the top of the tower. Samuel Lewis describes the castle as long since deserted in his ''Topographical Dictionary of Ireland'' in 1837 and notes that the last occupant was Lady Acheson. Today, the castle sits in a field of privately owned tillage land.

St. Catherine's Church and Graveyard

The church in Portrane was granted to the Convent of Grace Dieu in the 12th century. Originally called St. Canice's, a new church was built in the 14th century and renamed St. Catherine's. St. Catherine's was coupled with St. Patrick's, Donabate, with the vicar of Donabate serving in Portrane. With the decline of St. Catherine's, the parish was linked to Donabate in the 17th century, and only eventually merged in 1835. A number of members of the Evans family from Portrane Castle are buried in the church graveyard.

Erosion

The coast in this area is subject to erosion, and since the 1980s, of beach at Portrane has been lost. Many houses on the peninsula were demolished in the 1960s due to the dangers of erosion. A storm in March 2018 caused erosion of low cliffs backing the beach, and one home was destroyed. Concrete structures known as sea bees have been placed below the cliffs, but the erosion continues, and further houses are threatened.

Popular culture

Music

Members of the band U2 owned a caravan in a field in Portrane where they composed some of the music and lyrics for their 1981 album, ''

October October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ''ôctō'' meaning "eight") after Januar ...

''. Lead singer

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by the nickname Bono ( ), is an Irish singer-songwriter and activist. He is a founding member, the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Bono is known for his impassioned voca ...

was baptized at Portrane beach by the Shalom religious group which all but

Adam Clayton Adam Charles Clayton (born 13 March 1960) is an English-Irish musician who is the bass guitarist of the rock music, rock band U2. Born in Oxfordshire, England, he lived in County Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland after his family moved to ...

were a member of. Rock band the

Delorentos Delorentos are a Dublin-based Irish alternative rock band, formed in 2005. They consist of Rónan Yourell (vocals, guitar, piano), Kieran McGuinness (vocals, guitar), Níal Conlan (bass, backing vocals) and Ross McCormick (drums, backing vocals) ...

are Portrane natives.

Television

Portrane has been used as a location for a number of film and television shoots. Parts of the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

television series

Father Ted ''Father Ted'' is a sitcom created by Irish writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews (writer), Arthur Mathews and produced by British production company Hat Trick Productions for British television channel Channel 4. It aired over three seri ...

were filmed in Portrane, most notably ''Funland'' in the first episode " Good Luck, Father Ted" was filmed in Tower Bay. It was also featured in the BBC series "Murphy's Law" starring

James Nesbitt William James Nesbitt (born 15 January 1965) is an actor from Northern Ireland. From 1987, Nesbitt spent seven years performing in plays that varied from the musical '' Up on the Roof'' (1987, 1989) to the political drama ''Paddywack'' (1994). ...

References

{{Authority control Towns and villages in Fingal Beaches of Fingal