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GRANGECON

CO. WICKLOW · IE

Grangecon
Gráinseach Choinn, Co. Wicklow

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 09 / 09

Gráinseach Choinn · Co. Wicklow

A west Wicklow farming hamlet that began as a monks' out-farm, named for the hound, with one good pub and a destination cafe hidden up the back roads.

Grangecon is a small farming village in west Wicklow, in a valley between Baltinglass to the south and Dunlavin to the north, hard against the Kildare boundary. The name is the whole story: Gráinseach Choinn, the grange of the hound. A grange was a monastic out-farm, and this one belonged to the Cistercian monks of Baltinglass Abbey, who worked the land and ran a mill on the slip of a stream that runs through the village down to the River Griese.

The medieval bones are faint now. The Abbot of Baltinglass had a castle here, and a 1541 survey of the dissolved abbey lists Grangecon among its holdings, but only minimal ruins survive in the demesne. What replaced the monks was a country estate - Grange Con Demesne - which passed eventually to Pierce O'Mahony, a Protestant nationalist who inherited it in 1900 and went off to Bulgaria to run an orphanage. The estate today is Grange Con Stud, thoroughbred country, which is what most of west Wicklow turns into the closer you get to the Curragh.

There is not a lot to the village itself, and that is fine. A pub, a cafe, a Catholic church, the old railway station turned into houses. But the pub is a good one and the cafe is a genuine destination - the kind of place people drive out from Dublin for a weekend brunch and a wood-fired pizza. Come for those, the back-road cycling, and a feel for how quiet this corner of Wicklow stays.

Population

~200

Pubs

1and counting

Founded

Cistercian grange of Baltinglass Abbey, medieval

Coords

52.9981° N, 6.6276° 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 The name

Gráinseach Choinn - the grange of the hound.

A grange was a monastic out-farm, and Grangecon was the Cistercian monks' grange. The second half is coinn, the hound. The whole place is named for a working farm run by the abbey at Baltinglass, and farming is still mostly what goes on around it.

Stories & lore → 02 The valley

A village in a valley between the Wicklow Hills and the Kildare plain.

It sits in a fold of west Wicklow between Baltinglass and Dunlavin, hills to the east, the lowlands of Kildare and the midlands to the west. About two hundred people. The tree-lined back roads through here are the kind people drive without ever meaning to find a village.

Walks & outings →

02 / 09

The pubs.

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

Moore's of Grangecon

Traditional village pub doing tapas

Pub, grocery & tapas, Main Street

Established 1887 and the village's one pub, on Main Street. It is the old model - pub, grocery and bar all in one - given a twist: the kitchen turns out tapas, with wines and craft beers to match, alongside ordinary bar food. There is accommodation too, branded the Hot Tub Hideaway. For a hamlet of two hundred people it punches well above its weight, and it is the reason to stop here of an evening rather than drive on to Baltinglass.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Grangecon Kitchen	Bakery & cafe	€€	A genuine destination cafe hidden up the tree-lined back roads, set up by Laura McEvoy and Stephanie Myerscough. House-baked sourdough, a seasonal menu with bold Mediterranean flavours, brunch through the week with no bookings, and a Friday wood-fired pizza night (book that one). Weekend evenings they put on garden dining in a heated tent. The grilled cheese on their own sourdough is the thing locals send you for. People drive out from Dublin for it, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Moore's of Grangecon	Tapas at the village pub, Main Street	€€	The other place to eat. International tapas, bar food, a decent wine and craft-beer list, in the village's one pub. Between Moore's and the Kitchen, a hamlet this size feeds you better than most towns ten times the population.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Moore's of Grangecon - the Hot Tub Hideaway	Pub accommodation, Main Street	Moore's runs its own accommodation in the village, the Hot Tub Hideaway. It is the only bed in Grangecon itself. For more choice you are looking at Baltinglass or Dunlavin, both within fifteen minutes, or the country-house hotels out toward the Kildare side.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

Cistercian out-farm, medieval

The grange of the hound

Grangecon started life as an out-farm of Baltinglass Abbey, the Cistercian house founded in 1148 down the road. A grange was exactly that - a working farm run by the monks to feed the abbey - and this one was the grange of the hound, Gráinseach Choinn. The Abbot had a castle built here, and the monks ran a corn-mill on the small stream that still runs through the village to the River Griese. When the monasteries were dissolved in 1541 a survey listed Grangecon among the abbey's castles and holdings. Only minimal ruins of the old castle survive in the demesne now, but the name carried the farm through eight centuries.

Grange Con Demesne, 1850 to 1930

Pierce O'Mahony's Bulgarian orphans

Pierce Charles de Lacy O'Mahony inherited the Grangecon estate from an uncle in 1900, gave up his law practice, and took back the old family surname. He was a Protestant nationalist with an unusual cause: in 1903 he travelled to Sofia and opened St Patrick's orphanage for refugee children. Some of the orphans took the name Mahoni in his honour and a street in Sofia still carries it. He was decorated by King Ferdinand of Bulgaria for the work, while Ireland knew him as the O'Mahony of Kerry. The demesne stayed with the family until his death in 1930. It is now Grange Con Stud, a thoroughbred breeding operation - the estate became a stud farm, which is the standard fate of a Wicklow demesne this side of the Curragh.

Grangecon railway, 1885 to 1947

The station that ran for sixty years

Grangecon got a railway station on the 1st of September 1885, on the line that ran through this part of west Wicklow. It carried passengers for just over sixty years before closing to them on the 27th of January 1947, with goods following soon after. The station buildings are still standing - they were turned into private houses, which is the quiet second life of half the small stations in Ireland. The post office, opened back in the 1840s, hung on a good deal longer before closing in 2007.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

The west Wicklow back roads There are no waymarked trails in the village, but the roads themselves are the walk. Quiet, tree-lined, well-surfaced lanes run out toward Stratford, Dunlavin and the Kildare boundary through cattle and sheep country with the Wicklow Hills standing to the east. Good for cycling as much as walking. Bring a map and an easy afternoon; this is wandering rather than ticking off a route.

Pick your own loopdistance

1-3 hourstime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The valley greens up, the back roads dry out, and the cafe is at its best with lighter evenings for the garden tent. A good time for the cycling.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings for a tapas night at Moore's and weekend pizza in the cafe garden. The west Wicklow lanes are quiet even in high season - the crowds are all over at Glendalough.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The tree-lined roads turn, and the cafe and pub keep their full week. Probably the prettiest time on these back roads.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and not much to do once the light goes. Check opening days for both the cafe and the pub before you drive out; this is a place that quietens right down off-season.

◐ 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.

Hunting for the medieval castle

The Abbot of Baltinglass had a castle here and the abbey's 1541 survey lists it, but only minimal ruins survive in private demesne ground. There is no romantic ivy-clad keep to photograph. Read the name and the story instead, and go and see the real abbey ruins fifteen minutes south in Baltinglass.

Expecting a village with shops and sights

Grangecon is a hamlet of about two hundred people - a pub, a cafe, a church, some houses. That is the entire village. Come for the pub, the cafe, and the quiet, not for a day's worth of attractions. The attractions are in Baltinglass, Dunlavin and over the line in Kildare.

Looking for the train

The station closed to passengers in 1947 and the buildings are private houses now. There is no rail service. You are driving, or you are on the Local Link.

Getting there.

By car

Grangecon sits off the N81 corridor in west Wicklow, between Baltinglass (about 15 minutes south) and Dunlavin (about 10 minutes north) on local roads. Dublin is roughly an hour and a quarter via the N81. The Kildare boundary is minutes to the west.

By bus

TFI Local Link route N81 runs a west Wicklow circuit out of Baltinglass through Dunlavin, Donard, Stratford and Grangecon. It is a rural service - check the timetable rather than turning up and hoping. There is no town-bus frequency out here.

By train

No station - Grangecon lost its railway in 1947. The nearest mainline services are well away; in practice you are arriving by car.