Discover Dalkey

Dublin's Medieval Port

Long before Dún Laoghaire built its piers, Dalkey was the working harbour that served Dublin. When the Liffey silted up in the medieval period, larger ships anchored in the sound off Coliemore and ferried their cargo ashore. To protect the goods, merchants built seven fortified town houses through the 1300s and 1400s. Two of those castles survive on Castle Street, Goat Castle and Archbold's Castle, and the 10th-century church and graveyard of St Begnet sits between them.

The trade moved on centuries ago and Dalkey settled into being a village, then a railway suburb, then one of Ireland's most sought-after addresses. The writers came first, Shaw and Beckett and Flann O'Brien and Maeve Binchy, and the musicians followed. The Heritage Centre in Goat Castle keeps the long version of the story, from Viking landing place to Writers' Gallery, and the view from the battlements still runs out across the sound to the island.