Gun-running, July 1914
The Asgard
On 26 July 1914, Erskine Childers sailed his yacht Asgard into Howth harbour with 900 Mauser rifles and 29,000 rounds of ammunition for the Irish Volunteers. His wife Molly was at the helm. The British army intercepted them on the way back to Dublin and lost. Most of those rifles were used in the 1916 Rising two years later. Childers was executed in 1922, by the new Irish state, for a different reason. The Asgard is in the National Museum at Collins Barracks now.
800 years in one castle
The St Lawrences
The St Lawrence family took Howth in 1177 after a battle at Evora Bridge — the stream ran red, hence the pub name across the road. They lived in Howth Castle, in some form, for the next 842 years. Tudor purges, Cromwell, the Famine, two world wars, partition — they survived the lot. In 2019 they sold up to a Dublin investment group and the line ended. The castle's still there. The family aren't.
Older than the pyramids
The portal tomb
On the grounds of Howth Castle stands Aideen's Grave — a collapsed Neolithic dolmen, around 4,500 years old. Older than Stonehenge. Older than the Egyptian pyramids. It's a few minutes' walk from the rhododendron gardens, signposted but not loud about it. Sit on it for ten minutes. You'll be the first person in 4,500 years to think exactly what you're thinking.
The island offshore
Ireland's Eye
The lump of rock a kilometre off the harbour is Ireland's Eye — a bird sanctuary, an old monastic site, and a Martello tower from 1804 when the British were nervous about Napoleon. Boats run from the East Pier in summer; the crossing takes fifteen minutes. Bring lunch, bring water, watch the gannets dive. The monks left in the 13th century. The puffins arrived later.