![SantryRiverDublin Course Sketch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/SantryRiverDublin_Course_Sketch.png)
Santry River ( ga, Abhainn na Culoige) (formerly ''Skillings Glas'') is a fairly small river on the north side of
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 ...
city, one of the forty or so watercourses monitored by
Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council ( ga, Comhairle Cathrach Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the authority responsible for local government in the city of Dublin in Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. Until 2001, the council wa ...
.
Course
![Santry_River_(Dublin),_mouth,_in_Kavanagh_JM_-_A_Grey_Day,_Watermill_Bridge_(1895)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Santry_River_%28Dublin%29%2C_mouth%2C_in_Kavanagh_JM_-_A_Grey_Day%2C_Watermill_Bridge_%281895%29.jpg)
The Santry River rises at an elevation of c. 80m, in the semi-rural areas of Harristown and Dubber in the part of
County Dublin
"Action to match our speech"
, image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg
, map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...
now administered by
Fingal County Council
Fingal County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall) is the authority responsible for local government in the county of Fingal, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities that comprised the former Dublin County Council before its abolit ...
, near the village of
St. Margaret's and
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 ...
. The lead branch can be found at the end of a small lane in the former Harristown Demesne, now cut off by new road development. The river then flows along to the south of Dublin Airport (from which some tributary streams enter it), near the new
Dublin Bus
Dublin Bus ( ga, Bus Átha Cliath) is a State-owned bus operator providing services in Dublin. By far the largest bus operator in the city, it carried 138 million passengers in 2019. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann.
...
Harristown depot. With the Dubber branch, it passes for most of its upper course out in the open, flowing through Sillogue Public Golf Course and then more of
Ballymun
Ballymun () is an outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland, at the northern edge of the Northside, the green-field development of which began in the 1960s to accommodate a housing crisis in inner city areas of Dublin. While the newly built housing was ...
; up to this point, the main channel is called Quinn's River.
The river traverses
Santry
Santry () is a suburb on the northside of Dublin, Ireland, bordering Coolock, Glasnevin, Kilmore and Ballymun. It straddles the boundary of Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council jurisdictions.
The character of the area has changed ...
, where it forms a major feature of the Santry Demesne, with small lakes within what is now the public park. In
Coolock
Coolock () is a large suburban area, centred on a village, on Dublin city's Northside (Dublin), Northside in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Coolock is crossed by the Santry River, a prominent feature in the middle of the district, with a linear ...
, the river forms a central feature in the valley which cuts through the district, and features a pond, sometimes Coolock Lake, and a small cascade, running past the
Stardust Memorial Park, and through the grounds of Cadbury's Ireland, where there is an EPA monitoring station and a tumulus on its banks.
The Santry River then enters
Raheny
Raheny () is a northern suburb of Dublin, Ireland, halfway from the city centre to Howth. It is centred on a historic settlement, first documented in 570 CE ( Mervyn Archdall). The district shares Dublin's two largest municipal parks, Saint Anne ...
near the beginning of Tonlegee Road, flowing alongside the Edenmore lands, past
St. Joseph's Hospital, through the village centre, alongside the grounds of Manor House School, and then, with two areas of culverting, at the beginning and end of the former Bettyglen Estate, reaches the sea, where its mouth forms part of the eastern "lagoon" behind
North Bull Island
Bull Island (Irish: ''Oileán an Tairbh''), more properly North Bull Island (Irish: ''Oileán an Tairbh Thuaidh''), is an island located in Dublin Bay in Ireland, about 5 km long and 800 m wide, lying roughly parallel to the shore off C ...
, and the flow enters Sutton Creek. The lower stretch of the river is occasionally noted as "Raheny River."
Drainage link from Naniken River
The dotted line on the above sketch is an artificial link made by Dublin Corporation between the Santry River and the
Naniken River
The Naniken River ( ga, An Nainicín) is a minor river on the north side of Dublin city, Ireland, one of more than forty watercourses monitored by Dublin City Council. It is culverted for its upper course, visible in St Anne's Park for its ent ...
, to reduce the flow of the latter and to allow handling of any flooding in either watercourse. It runs at the western end of Kilmore West in Coolock.
Nearby catchments
![Santry River at Raheny village](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Santry_River_at_Raheny_village.jpg)
In its upper reaches, the Santry drainage basin is bordered by that of the Wad River, which comes to the sea at the city end of Clontarf, and that of the Mayne River system, which concludes at Baldoyle Bay. Citywards, the Naniken basin lies closer to the city, while to the north and east two small streams drain parts of Edenmore and Raheny; these two watercourses are the Fox Stream, reaching the sea at the end of Fox's Lane, and the Blackbanks Stream, with its mouth where Howth Road and the James Larkin Road meet.
Studies
As part of the management of the river, the Santry river is one of the third tier rivers being numerically mapped within the Greater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study, with floodplain hydraulics computed (the other rivers being the Carrickmines, Deansgrange or Kill of the Grange,
Poddle,
Camac, Finglas and Mayne, along with one of the two second-tier waterways, the
Tolka).
Incidents
The Santry river has been noted for pollution incidents over the years, with industrial effluent and building material the most common causes (some of the latter once caused the main pond by the Stardust Memorial to be drained and reformed). There is a motorbike in the river in Stardust Memorial Park.
References
Bibliography
*
*
* Dublin, Dublin City Council, Raheny Branch Library: Local History File
* Dublin, Dublin Corporation and contractors, 2002 et seq: The Greater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study.
{{Rivers of Ireland, state=collapsed
Rivers of Dublin (city)
Coolock
Raheny