Howth is located on the peninsula of Howth Head, which begins around 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) east-north-east of Dublin’s GPO, on the north side of Dublin Bay.
The village itself is located just over 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) by road from Dublin city centre (the ninth of a series of eighteenth-century milestones from the Dublin General Post Office (GPO) is in the village itself).
The settlement spans much of the northern part of Howth Head, which was once an island but now is connected to the rest of Dublin via a narrow strip of land (a tombolo) at Sutton. Howth is located in the administrative county of Fingal, within the traditional County Dublin.
The village is bounded by the sea and undeveloped land except along two roads, one rising towards the Summit, one running at sea level near the coast, towards Sutton Cross.
Howth is at the end of a regional road (R105) from Dublin. One branch of the DART suburban rail system has its physical terminus by the harbour, the other northern terminus being Malahide’s station, which is actually on a through line for mainline rail towards Belfast.
Under the bus route network for Dublin overseen by the National Transport Authority, Dublin Bus serves Howth with route H3, and the local route 290 which goes over the hill and through Sutton to Sutton DART station.
For decades prior to 2021, Howth was served by the 31 series of routes. There was previously also a tram service. Howth, in addition to its fishery harbour, hosts a substantial marina, and seasonal boat service to the uninhabited Ireland’s Eye. Howth is also a waypoint for aircraft approaching Dublin Airport.
About ten to fifteen years ago I had lunch almost every week in Malahide and frequently my mother would join me but she will be 103 years old next May.
The Irish Sea has played a major role in the development of tourism in the Malahide. The extensive Velvet Strand stretches to the horizon and is extremely popular with bathers, walkers and water sports enthusiasts.
Walking from the town centre along the beach you’ll come to the wide velvet strand along the Mouth of the Estuary, from here the beach leads to Low Rock, a popular swimming section of the beach. After this the beach gets more rocky as you approach High Rock, for a more challenging swim and eventually if you continue on you will find yourself at Portmarnock beach where the sandy strand opens wide in front of you once more.
From Malahide Beach you can also take the coastal walk on the footpath all the way to Portmarnock but beware, it’s 5km away and that did catch me by surprise back in 2008 … I was exhausted and had to get a taxi back to the train station.
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