Blackrock () is a seaside village just to the south of

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

County Louth County Louth ( ; ga, An Lú) is a coastal county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of Meath to the south, Monaghan to the west, Armagh to the north and Down to the ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The small town is in the

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...

Haggardstown Haggardstown () is a townland and a civil parish located on the outskirts of Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. The civil parish of Haggardstown lies on the shore of Dundalk Bay, north of the estuary of the River Fane, and includes the village ...

and part of the Dundalk metropolitan area. The population of the village is between 3,000 and 5,000.

History

In the 1950s and 1960s, Blackrock was a holiday destination for people in the landlocked counties of

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), barony. The population of the town as of the 2016 census was 7 ...

and

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...

. The beach, which is pictured in colourised postcards of that era, was created with sand imported from beaches further down the coast, as sand is continually washed away contributing to the buildup of silt in

Dundalk Bay Dundalk Bay ( ga, Cuan Dhún Dealgan) is a large (33 km2), exposed estuary on the east coast of Ireland. The inner bay is shallow, sandy and intertidal, though it slopes into a deeper area 2 km from the transitional water boundary.< ...

. The village is enjoying a revival as a tourist resort and there remains a tradition of visiting Blackrock on 15 August (vide the Celtic feast of

Lúnasa Lughnasadh or Lughnasa ( , ) is a Gaelic festival marking the beginning of the harvest season. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Modern Irish it is called , in gd, Lùnastal, and in gv, ...

Since the late 1960s, Blackrock has expanded significantly and has become a dormitory village of Dundalk, and is considered part of Dundalk for census purposes. With the opening of the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, there has been another wave of expansion and it is also becoming a

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

with access to north Dublin. Blackrock beach and its promenade (incorporating Blackrock's Millennium project - a

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

which is claimed to be the largest in a public area in Ireland) is still a focal point of the village and the site of Christmas Day fundraising events, an annual

raft race Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...

, annual movie festival, pumpkin festival as well as several other events throughout the year. The promenade area includes a number of restaurants and public houses. There are views looking north over Dundalk Bay from the promenade toward the

Cooley Mountains The Cooley Mountains () are on the Cooley Peninsula in northeast County Louth in Ireland. They consist of two ridges running northwest to southeast, separated by the valley of Glenmore with the Big River running through it. Slieve Foy, at , ...

. In common with a number of east coast locations, the beach has a gentle gradient and the sea retreats about 5 km at low tide. The exposed seabed is a mixture of sand and

mud flats Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

. It is a habitat for a variety of wader birds, including

brent geese The brant or brent goose (''Branta bernicla'') is a small goose of the genus ''Branta''. There are three subspecies, all of which winter along temperate-zone sea-coasts and breed on the high-Arctic tundra. The Brent oilfield was named after ...

and

dunlin The dunlin (''Calidris alpina'') is a small wader, formerly sometimes separated with the other "stints" in the genus ''Erolia''. The English name is a dialect form of "dunling", first recorded in 1531–1532. It derives from ''dun'', "dull brown ...

s. The

River Fane The River Fane ( ga, Abhainn Átha Féan) is a river flowing from County Monaghan to Dundalk Bay in County Louth, Ireland. Course Originating in Lough Ross on the border of County Monaghan and County Armagh, and so of the Republic of Ireland ...

(to the south of Blackrock) enters the sea as a channel crossing from south to north in front of the promenade. Even at high tide, the water level is only about 1m out to the channel, and the front has become a

sailboarding Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

venue.

Sport

Kitesurfing

Kitesurfing Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is a sport that involves using wind power with a large power kite to pull a rider across a water, land, or snow surface. It combines aspects of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and wak ...

has become popular in the area. It is used as a location for learning when the tide is out and when the tide is in because of the shallow depths and, more often than not, flat water.

Greyhound racing

Blackrock Greyhound Stadium was a

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tra ...

stadium in Sandy Lane and the racing was organised by the Blackrock Greyhound Racing Company Ltd. The first racing in Blackrock took place at 'The Field' which is now modern day Beech Park housing in 1929 but moved a very short distance to Sandy Lane during the 1930s. Olympian

Pete McArdle Peter Joseph McArdle (22 March 1929 – 24 June 1985) was an Irish born long-distance runner who became a U.S. citizen, taking a gold medal for the United States at the 1963 Pan American Games in São Paulo, Brazil. Ireland As a resident of Bl ...

was a greyhound trainer at the track in the early 1950s. The site closed during the 1960s and the Blackrock Community Council took over Sandy Lane in 1971.

Association football

After the closure of the greyhound track Sandy Lane became a venue for the Juveniles and then Rock Celtic Football Club.

Transport

The village is served by public transport links seven days per week. Halpenny Travel's route 169 provides services to

. Additionally,

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Ireland, with the exception of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidia ...

routes 100 and 100X serving

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

Dublin Airport Dublin Airport (Irish language, Irish: ''Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath'') is an international airport serving Dublin, Ireland. It is operated by DAA (Irish company), DAA (formerly Dublin Airport Authority). The airport is located in Collinsto ...

and

can be accessed on the Dublin Road in

, approximately one mile from the village.

References

Footnotes

{{County Louth Towns and villages in County Louth