What's in Navan?!

sudzs

Probably moving to Navan in the Autumn so am wondering what the place is like?

What sort of shops? Any good pubs that do decent food? Public transport to Dublin...?

Any info very welcome! thanks!

Endurance Man

Got a few decent pubs but then i dont know what you folks class as decent . The new section of the mall opened a while ago, added a boots, argos and another cluster of womens clothing shops :rolleyes: .
The traffic in this town is like walking through hell 4 times a day, its horrific! Buses to dublin are fairly frequent, i think every 20mins but they are late a lot due to the traffic.
All in all i think it could be worse, but it could be a hell of a lot better to. The town planner appears to have rocks in his head.

sudzs

Sounds o.k! Is there a big Dunnes or Tesco?

I'm living in a town now that doesn't even have an ExtraVision so kinda looking forward to the excitement of what I consider a thriving metropolis!!

layke

Brown water....


...if yer lucky.

sudzs

layke wrote:

Brown water....


...if yer lucky.

Brown water??

Do you mean Guinness?!

Endurance Man

Ye, i dont drink from the taps, invest in a Brita jug. There's a big Dunnes and Tesco's. There are a good few shops but for some reason i still find myself going into dublin to shop.
If im not mistaken there is a new Shopping Complex opening just outside the town soon, close to St Pats school, if you ask me they should have made this bigger and left the mall as it was. The town is congested enough!
Oh, and if you value your car and your sanity, dont move anyhwere near Flower Hill! The road works guys play a fun game where they dig it up every week, they have been playing this game for over a year now :mad: .

~Leanne~

Navan isnt a bad spot really. Im moving there myself in October. The shopping centre is grand, plenty of parking altho tis a bit old fashioned! Has lots of good shops though. Tescos is very handy - opens till 12 midnight everynight i think!
Traffic wise is can be a pain at peak times but so is every other town.
Flower hill is a night mare, i dunno how my tyres are still in one piece!
Nightlife is good, good mix of pubs and clubs.

sudzs

Is that near the Trim Road?

BTW, must have the same road works people here! Burst water pipes a regular occurance! And always the same one! :rolleyes:

~Leanne~

No its on the way to the Slane Road / Round O pub roundabout.

utopian

Endurance Man wrote:

Buses to dublin are fairly frequent, i think every 20mins but they are late a lot due to the traffic.

Buses are more like every 15 minutes. Are you basing the "late a lot" comment on experience? I find that they reliably take 75 minutes or less from Market Square to O'Connell Street these days, which is okay.

Endurance Man

utopian wrote:

Buses are more like every 15 minutes. Are you basing the "late a lot" comment on experience? I find that they reliably take 75 minutes or less from Market Square to O'Connell Street these days, which is okay.

Well i can think of 3 occasions on a friday nite when the 8oclock bus just hasn't shown up . Fair enough, i dont travel on them every day, can only talk from experience. There are new express busses now which dont drive through the town, instead you have to wait on the main road, i think this is a great idea tbh, its only a short walk to where the bus stop was.
Once im on the bus the trip is usually very quick, but have had a few late busses.

Ruu_Old

Ah Navan isnt too bad, I do miss the sweet shop (across from the AIB). A friend of mine told it was turned into a "bagel bar", oh la la very New York.

jinxycat

ah navan's ok, but i have to agree the traffic is appauling at times, and for flower hill i just won't go there it's a nightmare at the best of times.

as for the trim road if you're looking into somewhere in that area it's grand, i live out there but there's a big planning development starting soon enough to build up the place more.

they're opening up some of the estates to the main roads to help with the traffic problem, building a school and creche and shops and a big estate, suppose to be something like 2000 new houses so it's gonna be pretty hectic in this area soon enough.

and yes sadly the sweet shop is now gone and is a bagel bar

Ruu_Old

I'll definately have to go take a trip when I get home again.

upmeath

The town planner is female. I'm from nearby Trim and I have to say I like Nyaaavan alright. It has a lot going for it, people have plenty of character and the funniest accent this side of Nobbuh. Couple of very dodgy chip shops, foodwise, I got a bag of chips in an establishment in the town centre 2 weeks ago and a live fly was waiting for me at the bottom of the bag, bathing in my vinegar. Same chip shop gave me my change in french francs, which I didn't know was accepted in Italian chip shops to this day. Nice shopping centre, decent cinema, a few good pubs and a lot of bad ones. 2 nightclubs, one that smells, sizeable supermarkets in Dunnes and Tesco. Great food in O'Briens of Johnstown.

Endurance Man

upmeath wrote:

The town planner is female. I'm from nearby Trim and I have to say I like Nyaaavan alright. It has a lot going for it, people have plenty of character and the funniest accent this side of Nobbuh. Couple of very dodgy chip shops, foodwise, I got a bag of chips in an establishment in the town centre 2 weeks ago and a live fly was waiting for me at the bottom of the bag, bathing in my vinegar. Same chip shop gave me my change in french francs, which I didn't know was accepted in Italian chip shops to this day. Nice shopping centre, decent cinema, a few good pubs and a lot of bad ones. 2 nightclubs, one that smells, sizeable supermarkets in Dunnes and Tesco. Great food in O'Briens of Johnstown.

Sorry but those cinama's are utter crap :S, whoever wired up their surround sound musta been blind or something. I went to watch King Kong a few months back and whenever something was going left-right on the screen, the sound would go right-left . I wouldnt go back tbh.

sofireland

I've lived in Navan a good while now, i think it has a lot going for it. Although the lack of decent men's clothes shops is a concern to me

Show me any medium size town in Ireland that doesn't have mad traffic due to lack of bypass! FFS

I agree the cinema is poxy, i always drive up to Blanch or Liffey valley.

Slippin Jimmy

sofireland wrote:

I've lived in Navan a good while now, i think it has a lot going for it. Although the lack of decent men's clothes shops is a concern to me

Yeah now that you say it there is no decent mens clothes shops in the town:rolleyes: . I haven't really noticed it till now because I ussually go to Dublin for my clothes shopping. Like tomorrow for example, I'm taking a trip uo to Dublin for some clothes:D .

Have to say though that the cinema isn't the worst, I have been to much worse. Many happy nights in there if you know what I mean. Ahh but in fairness it is decent enough. The food and drinks are very very dear, but they are doing free refills on any drink, suppose thats good.

sofireland

I'm the same, i only buy clothes in Dublin, mainly in Dundrum SC, and Blanch SC.

Free refills? I love that, the best thing about the states in my opinion! (kiddinG)

Ruu_Old

I find the cinema fairly expensive alright, never knew they done the free refills thing. Its not the worst spot I have seen either.

sofireland

One thing that annoys me about the cinema in navan is the fact that my own surround system at home makes it sound like those speakers you get in the pound shop! Plus for it to be nearly as expensive as the "good" cinema's in dublin makes me sick!

sofireland

D'oh duplicate post!

Ruu_Old

sofireland wrote:

One thing that annoys me about the cinema in navan is the fact that my own surround system at home makes it sound like those speakers you get in the pound shop! Plus for it to be nearly as expensive as the "good" cinema's in dublin makes me sick!

The sound is fairly bad and always crackling when I go there.

cue

Lets not forget its new arts centre. Think they have a Picasso exhibition at the moment.

Alter-Ego

I miss the maze in the shopping center

..anyway, free refills in the cinema, really? Cool.

Ruu_Old

Alter-Ego wrote:

I miss the maze in the shopping center

..anyway, free refills in the cinema, really? Cool.

Hehe how very retro of you, its years since that was there but yes it rocked <3core.

europerson

Alter-Ego wrote:

I miss the maze in the shopping center

I got lost in there as a young child (about four years old), and I cried.

Navan Junction

utopian wrote:

Buses are more like every 15 minutes. Are you basing the "late a lot" comment on experience? I find that they reliably take 75 minutes or less from Market Square to O'Connell Street these days, which is okay.

Well, whenever the rail line is reinstated you'll be in Dublin in 45 mins if they use the old alignment..

LoneGunM@n

I've lived in Navan for nearly 2 years, having moved from Dublin & in all honesty I'll never move back ... ok so I spend as much time in Dublin [work] as I do in Navan, but the lifestyle I've experienced is much easier going.

The shopping centre's ok ... but has pretty much all you need [except as said before decent Men's clothes shops].

The cinema's cr@p, but I always head to Blanch or Liffey Valley.

The traffic in the evenings coming in from Dublin is cr@p ... flower hill has made sh!t of plenty of tyres, but it looks like they've sorted it out now [for how long ... no one knows].

The Round O's a decent boozer & Zucchini's a great restaurant.

tungsten

there are some real treats in navan (an uaimh = the hole). the blue monument on the bypass, aah a haven in my younger days for cider drinkin before the "noname" (non alcoholic disco)...the motte and bailey in athlumney, again a haven in my younger days for cider drinkin, the molly's, dalgan park..where havent i knacker drank

froggy_7

I live in Trim and commute to Navan for work. I think this is ideal, as Navan starts to really buzz as regards work, shops and culture (I am amazed that cue was the only one to mention the Arts Centre!!! By the way, Picasso is gone; the new exhibition of photographs of young people around Europe is really moving).
Ok, the cinemas facilities are not of the highest standards, but I hope they'll renovate soon, following the trend of improvements going all around them! The Arts Centre is going to show more films in the future too, probably more cine-club and way cheaper than going all the way to Blanch. Although, I have to say I love the big multiplex there!
Solstice and a few pubs around town have good music sessions too...
And at the end of the day, I just love to go back to beautiful Trim, under a gorgeous sunset on the Boyne and Castle, if I'm lucky!
Best of luck with the move and welcome to marvelous Meath!

Access

My wife and I are from Killarney and moved up here four years ago. (My wifes parents are originally from Navan). and four years ago, we said we would give it six months to see if we liked it... and we are still here.

Live and work in Navan, so no problems with commuting! (except for flower hill!!!) Navan is a nice town, we have everything here, and with the bowling alley opening soon near the cop shop and the likes of Lidi and Aldi and smaller places like Dominos pizza and others opening soon... it can only get better.

I must say though, that the town planners were on drugs for a few years though, as building is all over the place! No set outlay to the town... I mean take the parking in front of dunnes and xtravision... WTF!

cue

The hill of Tara is near by which is good if you want to look at all the flat fields of Meath spreading off into the distance. It has a good audio visual exhibition in the church, and of course there is the annual solstice hooley with all the druids and witches celebrating the return of the goddess. Always a good day out.