Jenkinstown, Baile Sheinicín, Co. Louth

Baile Sheinicín · Co. Louth

A crossroads on the road to Carlingford, with a Michelin-listed country pub and the Long Woman's Grave up the mountain.

Jenkinstown is a small village on the R173 between Dundalk and Carlingford, set under the Glenmore mountains with Dundalk Bay below. Three hundred and sixty people, a crossroads, a chapel, a school, and a country pub-restaurant that has been on the regional map for thirty years. The Cooley Peninsula starts to feel like itself here - the road begins to climb, the bay opens to the south, and the sea-light comes off the inner bay onto the lower slopes.

The village is a junction more than a centre. The R173 carries the traffic to Carlingford. The R174 swings off toward Ravensdale and the border. The lane up to the Long Woman's Grave climbs through Cassan an Chairthe - the Stone Path - over the Windy Gap and drops into Omeath. An abandoned railway formation runs through the lower fields. Round Mountain, Annaloughan and Slievenalogh are all part of the parish skyline.

Don't come for a village checklist. Come for a long lunch in Fitzpatrick's, a drive up to the Long Woman's Grave with the Carlingford Lough view at the top, a stop at the Edentubber memorial on the way back if you want the unsweetened twentieth-century version of the local history, and Carlingford or Dundalk for bed. The local parish, Lordship & Ballymascanlan, runs from here to the lough; St Patrick's GFC at Lordship is the football club; the chapel down the road from the village is the centre of it all on a Sunday morning.

Population

~360 (2022)

Pubs

2and counting

Walk score

Crossroads to the Long Woman's Grave is a drive, not a walk

Founded

Crossroads village on the R173, Cooley Peninsula; parish of Lordship & Ballymascanlan

Coords

54.0467° N, 6.3431° W

01 / 09

At a glance.

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

01 Fitzpatrick's

A country pub on the R173 that put the village on a guidebook page.

Fitzpatrick's Bar & Restaurant on the Carlingford road has been the destination dinner of north Louth for decades. Listed in the Michelin Eating Out Guide; the kind of country pub where the inside is dressed in two centuries of bric-à-brac. Locals from Dundalk drive out for the Sunday lunch.

Food & coffee → 02 The Long Woman's Grave

A cairn at the Windy Gap, a Spanish bride, the road over the mountain.

Up from the village, north on the back road over the Cooley Mountains via Cassan an Chairthe - the Stone Path - to the Windy Gap. A cairn on the saddle marks the grave of a seven-foot Spanish bride who is said to have died there in the seventeenth century. The view down to Carlingford Lough is the photograph.

Stories & lore → 03 The parish

Lordship & Ballymascanlan, with Edentubber up the road.

Jenkinstown sits in the parish of Lordship & Ballymascanlan, Archdiocese of Armagh. Up the road on Edentubber Mountain a memorial marks the five IRA volunteers killed by their own bomb in November 1957 - the largest single republican loss of the Border Campaign. Local history, complicated, present.

Stories & lore →

02 / 09

The pubs.

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

Fitzpatrick's Bar & Restaurant

Bric-à-brac, real fires, full

Country pub & restaurant on the R173, Rockmarshall

Halfway between Dundalk and Carlingford on the road. Big, rambling country pub dressed in two centuries of stuff - old signs, farm tools, the kind of decoration that built up rather than was bought in. Listed in the Michelin Eating Out Guide a decade ago and has held the standard since. Bar at the front, dining rooms running back. Book Friday and Saturday a week ahead.

Carrick Bar (Carlingford 10 min)

A note

Jenkinstown has a country pub-restaurant. For a different sit-down on the same road, McKevitt's bar in Carlingford or PJ O'Hare's are ten minutes east. Head into the village if Fitzpatrick's is full.

The Lisdoo, Dundalk

Family-run pub since 1896

Twelve minutes south on the R173

Mentioned because the closest serious local pub in the other direction is back into Dundalk. The Lisdoo on the way into town is the call. Steak and Guinness, the pub-and-restaurant version of a north Louth night.

Park Hotel, Omeath

Lough-side village hotel

Fifteen minutes through the Windy Gap

If you have driven up to the Long Woman's Grave and dropped into Omeath the back way, the Park Hotel bar is at the bottom of the descent. A pint with the lough out the window before turning home.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Fitzpatrick's	Country pub-restaurant, Rockmarshall	€€€	The destination meal. Carlingford Lough seafood, Cooley lamb, a Sunday lunch that fills two dining rooms. The à la carte menu is long; the chef rotates specials. Wine list good for a country pub. Book ahead.
The Lisdoo, Dundalk	Twelve minutes south	€€	If Fitzpatrick's is full or you want a quieter mid-week sit-down, the Lisdoo on the way into Dundalk is the dependable second choice. Steak the order. Sunday roast still works at four o'clock on a wet October afternoon.
Granvue House, Omeath	Fifteen minutes north over the Gap	€€€	Through the back road over the Long Woman's Grave and down into Omeath. The Seaview Restaurant, recently nominated as best hotel restaurant in Louth, runs a serious dinner. Worth the drive if Fitzpatrick's is booked or you want the lough as your view.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Carlingford as base	Ten minutes east on the R173	Jenkinstown has no hotel. Carlingford is the obvious base - Ghan House, McKevitt's, the Four Seasons, Belvedere. Ten minutes by road, all of them eating in Fitzpatrick's anyway.
Ballymascanlon Hotel & Golf Resort	Fifteen minutes south, the M1 side of Dundalk	The closest proper hotel. Victorian house in 130 acres on the way back to Dundalk, with the Proleek Dolmen on the grounds. Useful if you want golf or a spa as part of the trip.
Local farm-stays and B&Bs	Townland B&Bs around Rockmarshall and Ravensdale	A handful of farm-stays and B&Bs in the surrounding townlands - Ravensdale, Rockmarshall, Bellurgan. Search by townland, not by Jenkinstown. Useful if you want a quiet bed close to the back road over the Gap.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

A Spanish bride at the Windy Gap

The Long Woman's Grave

On the back road over the Cooley Mountains from Jenkinstown to Omeath, at the saddle locally called the Windy Gap, a low cairn marks what tradition calls the Long Woman's Grave. The version told in the parish is this: Lorcan O'Hanlon, youngest son of the chieftain of Omeath, sailed to Spain, rescued a nobleman and his seven-foot daughter Cauthleen at sea, married her, and brought her home. His older brothers had inherited the good lowland; Lorcan got a stretch of mountain bog. When Cauthleen saw it she fainted dead and never recovered. She was buried where she fell, under the stones at the Gap. The cairn is on the saddle, the view from the lay-by is one of the best on the peninsula, and the story has the indispensable quality of being too specific to be entirely invented.

Five men, a cottage, a bomb

Edentubber, 1957

On the morning of 11 November 1957 a cottage on Edentubber Mountain, three hundred yards from the Carrickarnon border post on the Dundalk-Newry road, exploded. Five members of the IRA died in the blast - Paul Smith, Patrick Parle, Oliver Craven, Michael Watters and George Keegan - when their own bomb detonated as they were preparing it for an action in the North. They are commemorated as the Edentubber Martyrs in republican tradition; it was the largest single loss the IRA suffered during the 1956-62 Border Campaign. A memorial stands at the roadside above the village. It is part of the local history; whether you stop is a private call.

A Cooley restaurant on the Michelin page

Fitzpatrick's and the rise of the country pub

There used to be Irish country pubs that did food because the regulars wanted toasted sandwiches at half-past nine. There are now Irish country pubs that do food because Dublin couples drive an hour for the Sunday lunch. Fitzpatrick's on the Rockmarshall stretch of the R173 is the second kind. Three generations of the family, a kitchen that takes the seafood out of Carlingford Lough seriously, and the Michelin Eating Out Guide page a decade ago that confirmed what the locals already knew. The decoration is half-museum: hundreds of vintage signs, old farm implements, photographs of the village a century ago. The plates are not vintage. Book ahead.

Where Jenkinstown belongs

The parish of Lordship & Ballymascanlan

Civil and ecclesiastical Ireland do not always agree, and Jenkinstown sits inside the larger Catholic parish of Lordship & Ballymascanlan in the Archdiocese of Armagh. The parish covers the foothills from Ballymascanlan through Lordship to Rampark, with three churches and one community. St Patrick's GFC at Lordship - founded 1953, seven Senior Football Championships by the end of 2015 - carries the parish flag in football. The Catholic chapel south of the Jenkinstown crossroads is one of the parish's three churches. This kind of joined-up parish is why a small village like Jenkinstown feels woven in rather than lonely.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

Long Woman's Grave drive & lay-by walk Up the back road north of the village to the Windy Gap saddle. Short walk from the lay-by to the cairn and the viewing point. The view down to Carlingford Lough on a clear day is the photograph. Narrow road, passing places, take it slowly.

Drive 6 km up + 0.3 km lay-bydistance

30 minutestime

Slievenalogh foothills Walk up from the village onto the lower slopes of Slievenalogh, on local lanes and a few green roads. Bay views to the south, the higher Cooley peaks to the north. Not waymarked; OS map needed and a bit of common sense. Boots.

5 km loopdistance

2 hourstime

Edentubber roadside memorial walk Up the Carrickarnon road from the village toward the border. Roadside memorial to the five killed in 1957. A short stop, not a circuit walk. Stand for a minute, read the plaque, drive on. The history is part of the place.

1 km return from lay-bydistance

20 minutestime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The mountain road dries out, the gorse comes on at the Windy Gap, and Fitzpatrick's is doing its early-season menus. Lambs in the lower fields. Probably the best month.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings, the back road over the Gap is busy with Cooley loop drives, the pub-restaurant fills at the weekend. Book Fitzpatrick's a week ahead in July.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The Cooley colour comes on. October light over Dundalk Bay and Carlingford Lough is what cameras were made for. Pub fires lit. The locals' season.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The mountain road can ice. Don't take the Long Woman's Grave road in fresh snow unless you know it. Fitzpatrick's stays open for Sunday lunch and is properly atmospheric on a wet evening.

◐ Mind yourself

08 / 09

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Driving the back road in fog

Cassan an Chairthe is narrow, twisting, with sheep on the road. In thick cloud you will see the front bumper and not much else. Go round on the R173 if the cloud is down - it is twenty minutes longer and considerably saner.

Looking for a Jenkinstown village centre

It is a crossroads. There is a chapel. There is a pub. That is the village. The good stuff is on the surrounding roads - Fitzpatrick's a kilometre east, the Long Woman's Grave six up, Edentubber further again.

The Edentubber memorial as a "must-see"

It is a roadside memorial to five men killed by their own bomb. It belongs to the parish. Stop if the history matters to you; pass if it does not. It is not a tourist attraction.

Getting there.

By car

Dundalk to Jenkinstown is 12 minutes on the R173 north. Carlingford is 10 minutes east on the same road. From Dublin, M1 to Dundalk then R173 - about 1h 15m total.

By bus

Bus Éireann route 161 (Dundalk-Carlingford) stops at Jenkinstown several times daily - about 15 minutes from Dundalk. Useful for getting to Fitzpatrick's without driving.

By train

No train. Nearest station is Dundalk Clarke on the Belfast-Dublin Enterprise line, twelve minutes south.

By air

Dublin Airport (DUB) is 1h by car. Belfast International (BFS) is 1h 10m.

Next on the tour

Co. Louth

Carlingford

Ten minutes east on the R173. The medieval town and the showpiece of the peninsula - castle, walls, the Mint, and the proper hotels for a longer stay.

Co. Louth

Dundalk

Twelve minutes south on the R173. Clarke Station, the cathedral, dinner in Rosso, music at the Spirit Store. The county town that runs the rest of north Louth.