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LOUGHSHINNY

CO. DUBLIN · IE

Loughshinny
Loch Sionnaigh, Co. Dublin

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 07 / 07

Loch Sionnaigh · Co. Dublin

A working harbour, folded cliffs you can read like a book, and the biggest Iron Age fort in Ireland on the headland next door.

Loughshinny is a small fishing village on the Fingal coast between Rush and Skerries, with a population of around 740. There is a harbour, a small sand-and-shingle beach, a car park, a coastal path, and not much else - no shop, no restaurant, and a single pub whose doors have opened and closed more than once. That thinness is not a fault. It is the reason to come.

The name is Loch Sionnaigh, the lake of the fox. The Vikings worked this coast from their base on Lambay Island and left their word for the place - Fingal, the land of the fair-haired strangers - on the whole of north County Dublin. The Normans came next; the De La Hayde family held the land, and one of them, Richard, sat as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland and died in 1540. In the 1770s a copper mine opened in the cliffs under Luke Dempsey, working German and Belgian miners, and closed around 1812 when the end of the Napoleonic wars made the copper uneconomic. The shafts are still marked on the village heritage walk.

The harbour is the draw. At low tide, with the boats resting on the seabed and the pots stacked on the quay, it looks like a harbour from the painting of Ireland that people imagine exists somewhere and rarely find. This is where it is. South of the car park the cliff path passes the Loughshinny Folds, where carboniferous rock has been crumpled into curves you can trace with a finger, and a Smugglers Cave the locals will point you to. North of the village the path climbs toward Drumanagh, the great earthwork fort that has been giving up Roman pottery for seventy years.

Loughshinny has been twinned with the Breton village of Quistinic in Morbihan since 1994, and the village still runs school and club exchanges across the water. It is a place that punches well above its size on history and well below it on amenities. Bring a coffee from Skerries or Rush, walk the headland, read the cliffs, and let the harbour do the rest.

Population

741 (2022 census)

Walk score

Harbour to headland in ten minutes

Coords

53.5470° N, 6.0861° W

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The harbour

A handful of boats. Lobster pots. Low tide.

Loughshinny Harbour is a small working harbour - a few crab and lobster boats, stacked pots on the quay, the smell of rope and saltwater. It looks exactly as it should and has not been improved. The little clump of ground beside it is still called The Greenhouse, said to be from the Viking habit of roofing houses with sods.

Walks & outings → 02 The folds

Geology you can read with your eyes.

The cliffs south of the harbour are made of limestone and shale around 325 million years old, crumpled into visible curves by forces acting on them over geological time. Geologists call them the Loughshinny Folds. You can stand on the path and read the strain in the rock without knowing a thing about geology.

Stories & lore → 03 Drumanagh

The largest promontory fort in Ireland, and Roman pottery.

The headland north of the village holds a vast Iron Age promontory fort defended by three banks and ditches. Roman Samian ware turned up here in the 1950s; in May 2025 archaeologists found the first intact Roman pot ever recovered in Ireland. A Martello tower sits on top of it all.

Stories & lore →

02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Yacht Bar

The one pub - check it is open before you set out

Village pub, at the harbour

Loughshinny's only pub, down by the harbour. It has had a chequered life: run for years by the Cloonan family, sold in 1999, changed hands several times and closed in the recession around 2006, then reopened in 2012 by Declan Cloonan, son of the original owner. Listings since have flagged it as closed again, so it is worth a phone call before you rely on it. When it is open it is the whole social life of the village. When it is not, the village has no pub at all - bring what you need from Skerries or Rush.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

The largest promontory fort in Ireland

Drumanagh and the Roman question

Drumanagh is the headland immediately north of Loughshinny - around forty-six acres of clifftop sealed off across the neck by three parallel banks and ditches running some 350 metres. It is the largest promontory fort in Ireland. Ploughing in the 1950s turned up sherds of Roman Samian ware, and the site has produced Roman glass, coins, ingots and brooches ever since, much of it dug out illegally by metal detectorists before any proper excavation. Archaeologists have argued for decades over what it means: a Roman military bridgehead, a Roman trading colony, or a native Irish settlement that traded heavily with Roman Britain. The trading theory is the one that now holds. In May 2025 a team from Maynooth University and the Irish Archaeology Field School lifted the first intact Roman pot ever found in Ireland out of the ground here. The site is not formally open and access can be restricted, but the coastal path runs close and the Martello tower on the headland is unmissable.

Carboniferous rock, crumpled

The folding cliffs

The low cliffs south of the harbour are the reason geologists make the trip. The rock is limestone and shale of carboniferous age, around 325 million years old, and at some point in the long history since it was laid down it was squeezed until it folded - bent into visible curves and chevrons that you can read in the cliff face like the page of a book. They are known as the Loughshinny Folds, and they turn up in Irish geology textbooks. You do not need any training to find them remarkable; they stop people mid-stride on the coastal path.

Worked 1770s, closed c.1812

The copper mine and the smugglers

From the 1770s a copper mine operated in the cliffs at Loughshinny under Luke Dempsey, who brought in experienced miners from Germany and Belgium. It closed around 1812 once the close of the Napoleonic wars knocked the bottom out of the copper price. The mine, the flag quarry, and a Smugglers Cave along the foreshore are all taken in by the village heritage walk, which runs three signed loops of about 3.5 kilometres each from Thomastown around the village. This was a coast that ran on fishing, mining and the occasional cargo that never troubled the revenue man.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Loughshinny Harbour loop Park at the harbour car park. Down to the pier, along the beach, up onto the headland and back via the lane. Do it at low tide to see the boats sitting on the seabed properly. The Greenhouse, the green patch by the harbour, is the old Viking-roofed ground.

1.5 kmdistance

25 mintime

Loughshinny to Skerries coast path North along the coast toward Skerries, passing under the Drumanagh headland with its Martello tower and Iron Age fort. The path delivers you to Skerries with its windmills, pubs and harbour. The better walk of the two if you want a destination with a coffee at the end.

5 km one waydistance

1.5 hourstime

Loughshinny to Rush South toward Rush along the coast. The Loughshinny Folds are in the cliffs early on the route, with the Smugglers Cave nearby. Flat and well used. Good in either direction.

4 km one waydistance

1 hourtime

Village heritage walk The signed local route from Thomastown around the village, taking in the old copper mines, the flag quarry and the Smugglers Cave. Three loops of roughly equal length are marked. The one with the mine workings is the one to do.

3.5 km loopdistance

1 hourtime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Seabirds on the headlands, the harbour quiet and photogenic, the folds clearest before the summer haze. A good month for the Drumanagh walk.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The car park fills on warm days and a lifeguard hut and summer toilets open at the beach. Arrive early or late. Note the bathing water has failed EU standards in the past, so check current status before swimming.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The best season. The coastal path in October light is excellent, the cliff geology is sharp once the haze clears, and there is almost no one about.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Cold and exposed, with weather coming straight off the Irish Sea. The harbour still works. If you want dramatic coast with nobody in it, this is when.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting amenities

There is a car park, a small beach and summer toilets. That is close to the full list, and the one pub may or may not be open. Bring coffee from Skerries or Rush and drink it on the harbour wall.

Expecting to walk into Drumanagh fort

The promontory fort is privately held farmland and an active archaeological site, not a visitor attraction. You can see the headland and the Martello tower from the coast path. Do not climb fences looking for Roman pottery.

Driving here for the day

Loughshinny earns half a morning, not a full day. Walk in from Rush or Skerries along the coast and it earns the morning honestly. That is the right unit of time for the place.

Getting there.

By car

From Rush, north on the R128 and follow the signs, about 3 km. From Skerries, around 4 km south on the coast road. Small free car park at the harbour, limited in summer.

By bus

No bus into the village itself. Local Link Fingal routes serve nearby Rush and Skerries; check current timetables.

By train

The nearest station is Rush & Lusk on the Dublin-Dundalk commuter line, about 3 km away. Skerries station is a similar distance. From either, walk the coast path rather than drive if you have the legs.