Heavenly Howth

View of Howth Head
from the East Pier

Ten miles north of the City of Dublin, the fishing village of Howth occupies a neck of land that juts into the Irish Sea. The rugged southern side of this peninsula overlooks Dublin Bay. On the gentler northern side, Howth Harbor provides shelter for fishing trawlers and private yachts. Beyond the small lighthouse on the East Pier, Ireland’s Eye and Lambay Island loom in the distance like sleeping sea monsters. Fancy boutiques and trendy restaurants line Howth’s main street. Splendid homes dot the rolling hillsides right to the top of Howth Head. Foremost among these grand abodes is Garrymuir, a majestic estate that had been in the Boru family for generations.*

View of Howth Harbor
from Howth Head

Okay, I made up that last sentence. Garrymuir only exists in my novels. Still, Howth is the right place for a majestic estate. I blogged about our hurried visit to this charming fishing village late last summer, but this time we stayed longer and had better weather: we did the glorious cliff walk again.

View of the Irish Sea

The Irish name for Howth is Binn Éadair, the "Hill of Edar." Edar, a chieftain of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, is supposedly buried on Howth Hill. The modern name of Howth emerged during the medieval influx of Vikings to the Dublin area. It comes from höfuth, the Norse word for headland.

Part of the Cliff Walk

As well as providing a well-set stage for my recently completed YA fantasy, Glancing Through the Glimmer, Howth has served as a venue for many events in Irish myth and history. Finn MacCool and his Fianna (the watchers of the coast, the guardians of the shore) reportedly had one of their many outposts up on the cliffs. Sixteenth century Pirate Queen Grace O’Malley paid Howth an outrageous and memorable visit in 1576 (see my previous post, Howth Therapy). And in 1914, author and Irish patriot Robert Erskine Childers smuggled rifles and ammunition for the Irish Volunteers into Howth Harbor aboard his famous yacht, the Asgard.

Heather Blooming
During a Previous Visit

Our latest visit to Howth took place on an early autumn weekday, and so we nearly had the cliff walk to ourselves. The glorious mounds of purple heather and yellow gorse we recalled from our first visit had faded by late September, though the lack of color hardly spoiled our enjoyment of the sweeping scenery. We trekked to the Bailey Lighthouse, climbed the summit to a wind-whipped stand of palm trees, and finished our hike with a stroll to the harbor to visit the seals.

*From Glancing Through the Glimmer by Pat McDermott



But So Pretty!



Enjoying the View