Baile Dubhghaill — the town of the dark stranger

The Vikings and the Monastery

The Vikings made their first recorded sortie to what is now Baldoyle in 898, though some historians place their presence here as early as 852. The Danish settlers who stayed did not live up to their raiding reputation — recent study shows the native Irish were four times more likely to attack Irish settlements than the Danes were.

In 1166, Dermot McMurrough endowed the Priory of All Hallows with the lands of Baldoyle to build a monastery here. The monks built a farmyard — a grange — which gave the townland Grange Road its name. All Hallows' last Prior surrendered the abbey to the royal commissioners in 1539.

A Farming and Fishing Village

For centuries Baldoyle and the surrounding townlands were farming land, with villagers along the coast fishing out of the estuary — up to a hundred men worked the water here until Howth Harbour opened in 1820.

Baldoyle is best remembered for its horse racing course, which ran from 1852 to 1972. The Baldoyle Derby and the Baldoyle Steeplechase were among Ireland's notable race meetings, and the town was also home to the Little Willie Hospital and a novitiate for the Irish Christian Brothers.

From Farmland to Dublin Suburb

From the early 1960s, Dublin's expanding city limits absorbed the farmland around Baldoyle, and farming as a way of life here disappeared. Today Baldoyle is a Dublin suburb marking the northern fringe of the city — but Main Street, where Fitzpatrick's now stands, has been a gathering place since long before any of that. Read more about Fitzpatrick's own story.