Baldoyle
| Baldoyle Irish: Baile Dúill | |
| County Dublin | |
|---|---|
 Baldoyle Bay | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | O246401 |
| Location: | 53°23’48"N, 6°7’36"W |
| Data | |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Fingal |
Baldoyle is a village of County Dublin that has become a coastal suburb of the townscape spreading out from Dublin's northside. It developed from a former fishing village.
The village is within the Barony of Coolock.[1]
Baldoyle is located north east of the city, and borders Donaghmede, which was formed from its western part, Portmarnock, Sutton and Bayside.
Geography
Baldoyle is mostly on level coastal plains, with the Mayne River passing under the railway line through a bridge structure known as the "Red Arches" and crossing in its northern parts, and coming to the sea. This river takes in the Grange Stream from Donaghmede, and other tributaries, notably the Seagrange Park Stream from the south and a small tributary from the Clongriffin estate to the west.
The Mayne and its tributaries have a history of flooding.[2] The Seagrange Park Stream once run south to the sea at Kilbarrack Road but was diverted to the Mayne.[3]
Name
The village appears to have its name from baile dubh-ghaill, which is to say 'town of the dark(-haired) strangers', the latter being name given by the Gaels to the Danes in the Viking Age to distinguish them from the Norwegians or "fair (-haired) strangers" (finn-ghaill).[4] While it is sometimes rendered as "Doyle's town" with reference to the personal name Doyle (which itself derives from dubh-ghaill) there is no evidence for this as an accepted name for the village.
About the village
Baldoyle village today has a coastal main street, with a Roman Catholic church, a community hall, a modern county library branch with sea views, some shops and pubs. Slightly inland, among the older suburban houses, are a small shopping precinct containing a Lidl supermarket, a football club, another Roman Catholic church, and other amenities. On the approach from the coast road is a well-known pub, the Elphin.
Many businesses in the area are represented by the Howth Sutton Baldoyle Chamber of Commerce.
On Grange Road towards Donaghmede is a light industrial estate, the Baldoyle Industrial Estate. At the front of the estate is a service station.
In recent years Baldoyle has been at the centre of a large house building programme, with the former racecourse having been sold to developers.
Seagrange Park is a public park that includes a modern playground and sports pitches. A new public park was to be built on part of the former racecourse lands, including a wildlife or nature park, and while this is still pending, a community garden is maintained on part of those lands.
History
Baldoyle with its sheltered waterside location, was a Viking base for many years, eventually suppressed by an attack by the King of Leinster.
Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (Dublin, 1837) says of the village in its older guise:
The village is pleasantly situated on an inlet or creek of the Irish Sea, to the north of the low isthmus that connects Howth, with the mainland: it comprises about 200 houses, and is much frequented in summer for sea-bathing. Some of the inhabitants are engaged in the fishery, which at the commencement of the present century employed nine wherries belonging to this place, averaging seven or eight men each; at present nearly 100 men are so, engaged. Sir W. de Windsor, lord-justice of Ireland, held a parliament here in 1369. The creek is formed between the mainland and the long tract of sand on the north of Howth, at the point of which, near that port, a white buoy is placed; it is fit only for small craft. The manor was granted to the priory of All Saints, Dublin, by Diarmit, the son of Murchard, King of Leinster, who founded that house in 1166.
The parliament mentioned above was held at Grange Church, better known as Grange Abbey, which now lies in Donaghmede and was partly restored in the late 20th century. At that time the area had a population of 1208, of whom 1009 lived in the village, and the lands belonged entirely to Dublin Corporation. There were three "big houses" viz Grange Lodge, Donaghmede House and Talavera, a police station and a coast guard base, and both a parish school and a hedge school, and at least one holy well.
The new district of Donaghmede, comprising perhaps six major housing development areas and a commercial and social core, was "carved out" of Baldoyle's inland lands, along with a little of Coolock, and some places often described as part of Raheny, in the 1960s and 1970s; it now has a population considerably greater than that of Baldoyle.
Baldoyle Racecourse
For most of the 20th century, Baldoyle was well known for its racecourse, which was one of three in the Dublin metropolitan area (and for a period the only one). Open land in the village had been an informal venue for horse races in the early nineteenth century, and annual race meetings at the site were proposed in 1842 at the same time as the closure of the Howth Park Racecourse in nearby Sutton and Howth.[5] A new enclosed course was opened in May 1874, which continued in regular use for more than a century, until it was closed in August 1972 due to financial difficulties related to the potential costs of necessary renovations.[6]
For several years during the 1960s, Baldoyle Racecourse became the destination for annual sponsored charity walks, which were intended to raise funds for the Central Remedial Clinic.
Sport
- Football: Baldoyle United FC
- Gaelic athletics: Na Dubh Ghall GAA, whose teams play at Racecourse Park.[7][citation needed]
- Badminton: There is a dedicated badminton centre on Grange Road, home to Baldoyle District Badminton Club and used substantially by several other clubs.[8]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Baldoyle) |
References
- ↑ Placenames Database of Ireland - Baldoyle civil parish
- ↑ Doyle, Joseph W. (September 2013). Ten Dozen Waters: The Rivers and Streams of County Dublin (8th ed.). Dublin: Rath Eanna Research. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-9566363-7-9.
- ↑ Yeates, Padraig (23 June 1993). "Residents angry at failure of floods safety valve". The Irish Times.
- ↑ Irish Names of Places, Vol. I., p. 350, and Mervyn Archdall's Monasticon Hibernicum, edited by Patrick Francis Moran; Vol. II, p. 21, note; Dublin: W. B. Kelly, 1873
- ↑ "Baldoyle Races". Freeman's Journal. 13 June 1842. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000056/18420613/009/0002. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
- ↑ Hurley, Michael (Spring 2006). "Baldoyle as a Racecourse Village". Dublin Historical Record 59 (1): 65–80.
- ↑ Na Dubh Ghall - Pitch Locator
- ↑ Baldoyle Badminton Centre