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OLDTOWN

CO. DUBLIN · IE

Oldtown
An Seanbhaile, Co. Dublin

The Fingal
STOP 06 / 08

An Seanbhaile · Co. Dublin

One pub, one chapel, the first place in the State to get the electric light, and a crossroads in north Dublin farmland that asks nothing of you.

Oldtown sits in the farmland of north Fingal, on the R122 between The Naul and St Margaret's, in the civil parish of Clonmethan. The village amounts to a crossroads, a church, a pub, a school, a handful of stone houses from the 1800s mixed with newer builds, and the agricultural country that surrounds all of it. Five hundred and twenty-three people at the last count. It is the kind of place you know because you grew up near it, not because you read about it.

It is a chapel village, and that explains its shape. When the Penal restrictions on Catholic worship eased in the late 1700s, a chapel was built here in 1827, and the rest of the village assembled around it - school, hall, priest's house, forge, shop, pub. The Famine then hollowed it out brutally: 156 people lived here in 1841, and by 1851 only 32 remained. The village you see today filled back in slowly over the century and a half since.

Two things give Oldtown a claim on the wider story. Molly Weston, the 1798 heroine who fought on horseback at the Battle of Tara and was killed there alongside her brothers, was born near here; the village put up a memorial to her at the 1998 bicentenary. And on 15 January 1947 Oldtown became the first place in the State to be switched on under the ESB rural electrification scheme - a footnote in most histories of Ireland, but it happened at this crossroads.

What Oldtown offers a visitor is the north Dublin countryside at its quietest, one honest country pub, and a small clutch of older lore - a ruined church, a holy well, a stone St Patrick is said to have pierced with his palm. There is no cafe, no visitor centre, no second pub to fall back on. The Naul is four kilometres east and has the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre; Garristown is a few kilometres west. Use Oldtown as a slow stop on a back-roads loop, not as a destination in its own right, and it pays out.

Population

523 (2022)

Pubs

1and counting

Walk score

A crossroads and a church. Five minutes, end to end.

Founded

Chapel village; the original chapel built 1827

Coords

53.5167° N, 6.2167° 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 chapel village

A village that grew up around an 1827 chapel - school, hall, forge, shop and pub followed.

Oldtown is a textbook chapel village: once the Penal restrictions eased, the Catholic chapel of 1827 became the centre of gravity and everything else - the national school, the community hall, the priest's house, the forge, the shop and the pub - gathered around it. The Famine nearly emptied it: 156 people in 1841, just 32 by 1851.

Stories & lore → 02 The light

First switch-on of the rural electrification scheme, 15 January 1947.

Oldtown was the first place in the State to get the light under the ESB's rural electrification scheme. The first pole had gone up at Kilsallaghan in November 1946; the switch was thrown here on 15 January 1947. The scheme ran until 1979 and changed the Irish countryside. It started in this crossroads village.

Stories & lore → 03 The pub

The Oldtown House - one country bar, stone walls, an open fire and Dublin GAA on the walls.

There is one pub and it is a good one. Stone-wall interior, a big open fire inside the front door, Dublin GAA memorabilia throughout. For a long stretch the creamiest pint in north county Dublin was poured here and barely cost a fiver. It is the whole of the village's hospitality, so do not arrive expecting a choice.

The pub →

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 Oldtown House

Stone walls, open fire, GAA on the walls

Country pub, village centre

The one pub, and a proper one. Stone-wall interior, a big open fire inside the front door, Dublin GAA memorabilia covering the walls. A genuine north-county-Dublin country local that the city rarely finds. For years it had a name for the creamiest pint around at well under a fiver. It is the entirety of Oldtown's hospitality, so treat it as the destination rather than one option among several.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

Oldtown, 1827

The chapel that built the village

Oldtown is a chapel village - a settlement that formed around a Catholic chapel once the Penal Laws relaxed enough to allow one. The chapel went up in 1827 and became the focal point; the national school, the community hall, the priest's house, the shop, the forge and the public house all gathered around it in the decades that followed. It is a common pattern across rural Ireland but rarely as legible on the ground as it is here, where the village really is the chapel and its dependents and very little else. The Famine then cut through it: the 1841 census recorded 156 people in 27 houses; by 1851 the figure had collapsed to 32. The modern Catholic church, Our Lady Queen of Peace, and the presbytery sit south of the old village core.

The 1798 rebellion

Molly Weston, on horseback at Tara

Molly Weston, a heroine of the 1798 United Irishmen rebellion, was born near Oldtown. She rode into the Battle of Tara on horseback alongside her brothers and was killed in the fighting there. The story was kept alive locally, and at the 1798 bicentenary in 1998 a memorial was raised to her in the village. It is one of the few hard claims this quiet crossroads makes on the national story, and the village has not let go of it.

Rural electrification, 15 January 1947

The first light in the State

The ESB rural electrification scheme, which ran from 1946 to 1979, brought mains electricity to the Irish countryside parish by parish and changed rural life more than almost anything else in the century. It began here. The first pole was erected at Kilsallaghan in November 1946, and the first switch-on - the first in the entire State - took place at Oldtown on 15 January 1947. A small plaque of a moment in a small village, but the light that spread across rural Ireland over the following thirty years was thrown on here first.

Older lore

St Patrick's stone and the throat well

Beside the remains of an old church in the village there is a well that local tradition says cures sore throats. Just outside the church gate stands the Stone of St Patrick, named for a tale in which the saint pressed his palm into the rock to make a hole and tether his donkey. Neither is signposted as an attraction and neither will detain you long, but they are the kind of pre-Reformation local lore that survives in north Fingal where it has been quietly worn away elsewhere. Ask in the village before tramping across farmland to find them.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

The crossroads and church loop There is no waymarked trail here - this is a stroll, not a hike. From the crossroads, take in the chapel and the older village core, find the church ruin and the holy well if a local will point you to them, and read the 1798 memorial to Molly Weston. Twenty minutes covers the village; the rest is the farmland around it.

1.5 kmdistance

20-30 minutestime

The R122 back-roads drive or cycle The real walk-equivalent out here is the back road. The R122 east to The Naul, where the River Delvin cuts a small cliff and the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre sits, is quiet, flat-to-rolling farmland with almost no traffic. Good cycling country if you are stitching together a north Fingal loop. Go west instead and you reach Garristown and its hillfort.

Oldtown to The Naul, 4 kmdistance

30 min cycletime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The flat farmland is at its best in spring. Drive the R122 between here and The Naul on a clear May morning and the country earns its keep.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Good cycling country on a north Fingal loop, very little traffic on the back roads, and the long evenings make the one pub worth a sit.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Fine on a dry day, with good light over the farmland. There is little to hold you here beyond a pint and a look around, so plan a second stop.

◐ Mind yourself

Winter

Nov-Feb

Quiet to the point of empty in winter. The Oldtown House and its fire are the reason to come; otherwise drive on to The Naul or Garristown.

◐ 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.

A detour without a plan

There is no cafe, no visitor centre and only one pub. Oldtown rewards a deliberate slow drive and a deliberate pint, not an expectant stop hoping for facilities.

Confusing this with the suburban "Oldtown"

Online searches will hand you population figures in the thousands - that is a different place. This Oldtown is a village of 523 people in north Fingal farmland. Set your expectations to the smaller number.

Hunting the well and the stone unguided

The church ruin, the holy well and the Stone of St Patrick are local lore on or near private farmland, not waymarked attractions. Ask in the village rather than wandering across fields.

Getting there.

By car

Oldtown sits on the R122. From Dublin Airport it is about 20 minutes northwest; from Balbriggan about 15 minutes south. The road through the village links The Naul (4 km east) with St Margaret's and the airport to the south.

By bus

Public transport is thin. Local Link Louth/Meath/Fingal runs the rural routes through north Fingal; check current timetables, as services are limited and not frequent. There is no train. The nearest rail is the Dublin-Belfast line at Balbriggan, about 15 minutes away by car.