Carrickmines () is an outer suburb of
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
in
Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown
Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown () is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which was disestablished in 1994. It is named after the former ...
,
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. The area, still semi-rural, was historically on the border of English control and featured a defensive construction,
Carrickmines Castle, which became the subject of national controversy during the building of a late stage of Dublin's
M50 orbital motorway.
Character
Previously a rural area, and today a semi-rural suburban region, Carrickmines is now divided northeast–southwest by the M50 motorway, with, to the northeast, more established residential areas, and to the southwest, including along Glenamuck Road, new retail parks, office buildings, housing schemes and apartments.
Geography
Carrickmines developed as a settlement in the more than 6 km long valley of the same name, which contains the modest Carrickmines River and its tributaries. The Ballyogan, Glenamuck and Golf Streams all merge in the vicinity. Downstream at
Brennanstown, the river merges with St. Bride's Stream, from
Foxrock
Foxrock () is an affluent suburb on the southside of Dublin, Ireland. It is within the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, in the postal district of Dublin 18 and in the Catholic parish of Foxrock.
History
The suburb of Foxrock was developed ...
, to form the
Loughlinstown River, which in turn meets the Bride's Glen Stream to form the Shanganagh River, which reaches the sea at
Killiney Strand.
Leopardstown
Leopardstown (), historically called Ballinlore, is a suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, at the foot of the Wicklow Mountains. With institutional lands and a large racecourse, it is divided by the M50 motorway (Ireland), M50 motorw ...
lies to the northwest, Foxrock to the north,
Cornelscourt and
Cabinteely
Cabinteely () is a suburb of Dublin's southside. It is in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, County Dublin, Ireland. The population of all electoral divisions labelled as Cabinteely was 15,864 as of the 2022 census.
Geography
Cabinteely lies around t ...
to the northeast and Brennanstown to the east,
Ballyogan to the west, Glenamuck and
Kilternan to the south, and
Laughanstown and Lehaunstown to the southeast.
The proposed
Natural Heritage Area of
Dingle Glen, a secluded mature
broadleaf woodland,
lies to the south of Carrickmines.
History
Beginnings
Carrickmines was founded in the 12th century by the
Normans
The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...
. It was established with a
Hiberno-Norse settlement,
castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
and village, on the frontier between
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
and
Wicklow
Wicklow ( ; , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; ) is the county town of County Wicklow in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located on the east of Ireland, south of Dublin. According to the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, it had ...
. Once the settlement found itself on an emerging frontier in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, its character, and the lifestyle of its occupants, fundamentally changed.
In 1402 the O'Byrne clan of
County Wicklow
County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...
, who periodically raided Dublin, moved a large mercenary force to the banks of the
River Dargle
The River Dargle () is a river that flows from the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland to the Irish Sea. It forms Powerscourt Waterfall, receives the Glencree and Glencullen Rivers, and later the Glenmunder Stream / County Brook, and the Swan River ...
at
Bray
Bray may refer to:
Places France
* Bray, Eure, in the Eure ''département''
* Bray, Saône-et-Loire, in the Saône-et-Loire ''département''
* Bray-Dunes, in the Nord ''département''
* Bray-en-Val, in the Loiret ''département''
* Bray-et-Lû ...
, but since the direct route to the city would bring them close to the stronghold of Carrickmines, they initially hesitated before attacking. Their delay allowed the Walsh family, who owned Carrickmines, to send an urgent warning to Dublin. The Dubliners responded decisively: the
Mayor of Dublin with a large force fell on the O'Byrnes and defeated them, in an encounter popularly known as the Battle of Bloody Bank, due to the number of casualties.
In later years, Carrickmines became a place of farmland and woods, notable for its
blackberry
BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...
bushes which were frequently used by family farmers during the autumn.
Carrickminders

During the construction of the M50 motorway, Carrickmines gained national notoriety when anti-roads protesters calling themselves the ''Carrickminders'' set up camp in the area and delayed the completion of the M50 for two years with legal challenges being taken by
Vincent Salafia. The objectors claimed that the underground remains of Carrickmines Castle, an
Anglo-Norman fort built in the 12th century on the edge of
the Pale
The Pale ( Irish: ''An Pháil'') or the English Pale (' or ') was the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages. It had been reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast s ...
, was of national importance. Today, much of the uncovered remains are preserved in tunnels and other structures scattered around the interchange. Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council claimed the action greatly increased the cost of the project, which was eventually completed in August 2005.
Development
Junction 15 of the M50 lies at the centre of Carrickmines. The retail park and developments on Glenamuck Road have converted the previously semi-rural area into a mix of suburban complexes, with shops, offices, apartment blocks and housing estates, and a patchwork of remaining farmland. The retail park, ''
The Park Carrickmines'', contains a mixture of retail and office space. It was sold for €100m in 2006, and reportedly garnered the highest retail park rents in Ireland in 2014. In 2015 it was reported as the best performing Irish retail park by ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
''.
2015 fire
On 10 October 2015,
a large fire swept through a
halting site on Glenamuck Road.
Transport
Carrickmines railway station originally lay on the
Dublin and South Eastern Railway
The Dublin and South Eastern Railway (DSER), often referred to as the Slow and Easy, was an Irish gauge () railway in Ireland from 1846 to 1925. It carried 4,626,226 passengers in 1911. It was the fourth largest railway operation in Ireland op ...
's
Harcourt Street line to
Bray
Bray may refer to:
Places France
* Bray, Eure, in the Eure ''département''
* Bray, Saône-et-Loire, in the Saône-et-Loire ''département''
* Bray-Dunes, in the Nord ''département''
* Bray-en-Val, in the Loiret ''département''
* Bray-et-Lû ...
. It opened on 10 July 1854 and later served the nearby tennis and croquet club until its closure on 1 January 1959 when
CIÉ
, or CIÉ, is a statutory corporation of Ireland, answerable to the Irish Government and responsible for most public transport within the Republic of Ireland and jointly with its Northern Ireland counterpart, the Northern Ireland Transport Hold ...
mothballed the Harcourt Street line.
The station building became a private residence and was extended over the former trackbed. This extension was removed in 2009 to make way for the
Luas
Luas (, Irish language, Irish: ; meaning 'speed') is a tram system in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. There are two main lines: the Green Line (Luas), Green Line, which began operating on 30 June 2004, and the Red Line (Luas), Red Line ...
extension to
Cherrywood.
Carrickmines Luas stop opened on 16 July 2010 on the
Green Line's extension from
Sandyford
Sandyford () is a suburb of Dublin, located in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland.
Sandyford Business District makes up much of the suburb and encompasses 4 business parks: Sandyford Business Park, Stillorgan Business Park, Central Park and S ...
down to
Brides Glen in Cherrywood. It lies in the northeast of the settlement behind the former railway station and has a
park and ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail transport, r ...
facility. It is also served by regular
Go-Ahead L26 services which pass through Carrickmines on their route from
Blackrock
BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager ...
to
Kilternan.
Cultural references
Carrickmines is mentioned in
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
's novel ''
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the second book and first novel of Irish writer James Joyce, published in 1916. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Ste ...
'', in which it is described as an area dominated by fields. It also appears in the 1961 film
Johnny Nobody.
See also
*
List of towns and villages in Ireland
References
{{Dublin residential areas
Dún Laoghaire
Places in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown
Towns and villages in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown