Rivermeade, Co. Dublin

01 / 06

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Lír Restaurant at St Margaret's Golf & Country Club	Clubhouse restaurant, St Margaret's	€€	The one sit-down option of any size near the estate, in the refurbished clubhouse at St Margaret's Golf & Country Club a short drive away, under five minutes from Dublin Airport. Open to non-golfers. Not a destination restaurant, but if you are out this way and want a proper plate rather than a service-station sandwich, this is it.

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

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

c.1450, and still wearing its first roof

Dunsoghly Castle

A couple of kilometres from Rivermeade, in the townland of Dunsoghly, stands one of the best-kept secrets in north Dublin. Dunsoghly Castle is a four-storey tower house built around 1450 for Sir Thomas Plunkett, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, with tapering square turrets at each corner. It is one of the very few fifteenth-century Irish tower houses to survive completely intact, and its arch-braced oak roof - four principals, still in place - is the only original medieval roof left standing in the country. It was used as the model for the roof restorations at Bunratty Castle and Rothe House. The Plunkets held it until the 1870s. Beside it is a small chapel carved with the Instruments of the Passion and dated 1573. The castle has been in State care since 1914 and is an OPW National Monument; the grounds stood in for Robert the Bruce's Edinburgh in the 1995 film Braveheart. Access is by the field gate and the tower itself is usually locked, so manage expectations - but the building, seen from the lane, is the real thing.

A name confirmed by a Pope in 1182

St Margaret's: older than it looks

The wider parish that Rivermeade sits in is far older than the estate. A document of 1182 has Pope Lucius III confirming 'the town of St Margarets' to the Archbishop of Dublin, and a chapel at Dunsoghly is recorded from at least 1275. Scattered through the townlands are the kind of quiet, unsignposted things that reward a slow look: a fulacht fiadh, the Bronze-Age cooking pit; a holy well associated with the Plunket family, walled in long ago to form a small bath; and an eighteenth-century church and graveyard. None of it is a managed attraction. It is the ordinary deep history of a north Fingal parish, lying in fields a stone's throw from a runway.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

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

Toberburr Road country loop There is no waymarked trail here, but the back roads around Rivermeade - the Toberburr Road, the lanes toward St Margaret's and Dunsoghly - are flat, quiet, and good for a walk or a cycle through working farmland. Watch for the odd fast car on the straights. The reward is the open north Fingal countryside that most people only ever see from a plane window on the way into the airport.

5-8 km, your calldistance

1-2 hourstime

To Dunsoghly Castle Walk or drive the short distance to Dunsoghly. The tower is usually locked, so this is about seeing the building in its setting rather than touring the inside - but as a destination for a short outing from the estate, a fifteenth-century castle with the only original medieval roof in Ireland is a fair bit better than most estates manage.

4-5 km returndistance

1 hourtime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Fine if you are out for the countryside or making the short pilgrimage to Dunsoghly. The farmland greens up and the back roads are at their best. As a destination in itself, still thin.

◐ Mind yourself

Summer

Jun-Aug

A reasonable waypoint on a cycling loop between Swords and the Naul hills, and the long evenings suit the country lanes. The castle and the parish are the reason to stop, not the estate.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Same advice. The light over the flatlands is good and Dunsoghly is quieter than ever. Bring boots for the field gate.

◐ Mind yourself

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and not much shelter. Little reason to make a special trip in the wet.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

×

Driving in looking for a village centre

Rivermeade is a residential estate, not a village in the traditional sense - no square, no main street, no pub. For something with shape to it, Swords is six kilometres east and the Naul is a short run north.

×

Treating St Margaret's and Rivermeade as one place

St Margaret's is the older parish and village; Rivermeade is the 1980s estate within the parish. Near each other, but distinct. The castle, the golf club and the old church belong to St Margaret's.

×

Expecting to tour the inside of Dunsoghly Castle

It is a National Monument in State care but not a staffed visitor site - the tower is usually locked and access is across a field. See it from the outside, admire that it has stood intact since the 1450s, and do not arrive expecting a ticket desk.

+

Getting there.

By car

Rivermeade is off the Toberburr Road, about six kilometres west of Swords and a few minutes from Dublin Airport. From Swords take the R104 toward St Margaret's; the estate is signposted off the local roads beyond it.

By bus

Dublin Bus route 40B serves Rivermeade, connecting the estate to Swords and Dublin city centre.

By air

Dublin Airport (DUB) is on the doorstep - a few minutes by car. Useful to know, given how close the runways are, but not a reason to visit.

Rivermeade, Co. Dublin

About 175 houses, a primary school, and north Dublin farmland in every direction. The castle is up the road, not in the estate.

Where to eat.

Stories & lore.

Dunsoghly Castle

St Margaret's: older than it looks

Things to do outside.

When to go.

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

Getting there.

Next on the tour