Celbridge --- some insights?

ampleforth

Hi all,

I work in Dublin, near city center, and look for an end-of-terrace or a semi 3-bed and consider Kildare as a possible place. After having looked at Maynooth, I also saw Celbridge and quite liked it (as superficial as I have so far experienced it).

Who can report and describe how life is there? I am new to Ireland and Dublin and even more to Kildare so there may be many aspects I overlook and do not understand. Ergo, I thought I better ask here.

I know it as a few bus connections and a airport bus. I believe a car is absolutely important when you live there, but I might be mistaken (and this would not be a negative item for me). That is about it, really, I saw that houses tend to be bigger and gardens, too, something I like. Everything else is naturally hard to grasp.

How is it with safety, cost of living, how much do you get for your money in terms of houses (besides what one can find out from Daft and Myhome) ? How is the community and other life style aspects? Any experiences and insights are highly appreciated.

Many thanks!

n97 mini

Of the big three towns in North Kildare (Leixlip, Maynooth, Celbridge), Celbridge is by far the worst when it comes to public transport. The other two have much more frequent bus services and both have train stations within walking distance. Celbridge doesn't have an airport bus whereas the other two are served hourly by the Airport Hopper.

Groucho2000

Celbridge is a lovely town to live in. We have lots of restaurants and pubs and also have Castletown which is a brilliant public park. Crime is very low and we have people from all corners of the world living here - all are very friendly in my experience. Buses from Maynooth go through Celbridge into the city centre and there is a train station at Hazelhatch that takes you into Heuston. I highly recommend Celbridge.

Davidth88

I second Groucho2000 , Celbridge is a fine place to live . It has all of the major supermarkets ( bar Dunnes ).
The 67 is a reasonable bus service with the 67N night busand there is a shuttle but to the station for the commuter services. It suffers on a Sunday because Dublin bus figures that 10am is ok for the first bus and Irish rail has I think 2 services all day .

Castletown is a wonderful asset with great walks and open spaces.

It's as safe as any town , there is some crime and suffers as does all the North Kidare towns from being close to the motorway so scummers from further afield come to break into houses and disappear. The playground is also not exactly a nice area after about 5pm because it seems to be taken over by teenagers.

Where it does suffer , as does Leixlip and Maynooth is that Kildare CC do their level best to ignore North Kildare , the council seems to be very Naas Centric and anything north of there is sort of ignored . This has resulted in a lack of public amenities in the area but it's slowly catching up .

However I love living in Celbridge the village feel to it is great and it has a great community feel as well.

Doodoo

Davidth88 wrote: »

It suffers on a Sunday because Dublin bus figures that 10am is ok for the first bus and Irish rail has I think 2 services all day.

Only found out recently that the 66 turns at Intel on Sat and Sunday morning and runs through celbridge.

https://www.dublinbus.ie/Your-Journey1/Timetables/All-Timetables/66/

ampleforth

Too bad there is so little movement in Celbridge...

ampleforth

For those who live in Celbridge, how are the broadband/fibre connections in Celbridge?

Are there up to standard, compared with Maynooth and Dublin? I am not so much talking about if the companies sell you the connection, they probably do, but more about how fast those connections are in real life. This is something one cannot check by simply adding an address on their website.

Doodoo

ampleforth wrote: »

For those who live in Celbridge, how are the broadband/fibre connections in Celbridge?

Are there up to standard, compared with Maynooth and Dublin? I am not so much talking about if the companies sell you the connection, they probably do, but more about how fast those connections are in real life. This is something one cannot check by simply adding an address on their website.

I was with Vodafone and Sky getting broadband through the phone line and was getting speeds of about 14 to 16 meg. Higher speeds are probably available now as fibre has been installed. A lot of houses, like mine, have cable connections available from Virgin. I'm with them for the last few years and currently getting 120 meg (actually getting about 80 through wifi). They also offer speeds of 240 and 360 meg for a few extra quid.

Joe Public

I just did a speed test using UPC/Virgin's tool from my eircom broadband connection and got the below results.

Moonbeam

Last Result:
Download Speed: 4326 kbps (540.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 896 kbps (112 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 14 ms
Jitter: 3 ms

6/28/2016, 11:22:30 PM

in Maynooth.

There are a few things running over the connection atm though.

Riskymove

I'm on fibre with sky and get around 70

L1011

You will get an absolute max of 100 with 'efibre' (which isn't fibre); 20 less if you take TV

You can get 360 on UPC

UPCs wireless router is a joke - don't use it and don't bother even looking at speedtests people post using it. Turn the wifi off on the UPC box and get a decent mid range wifi router instead.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Lived there for a while. Its as safe as anywhere really, no issue there. The main problem is the transport. Used to commute in and out of the city every day. Tried a number if ways and coming home always took am hour and 15, sometimes more. The buses, particularly the x in the morning, often fill at the main street and then don't stop after that.

As for broadband. I lived on the Dublin side of the river and had both sky and upc. Both were extremely fast but don't remember the exact speed. At the other end of town upc can be harder to get if the wires haven't been run. The water up the celbridge house side of town is rock hard as well, though that's hardly a massive issue.

Castletown is fantastic and all the major supermarkets are there. It's close to maynooth too which has some fantastic food. Overall I'd say celbridge is a grand place to live, with the only major downside being the commute unit town if that's where you work.

Best of luck with the move.

Coopaloop

L1011 wrote: »

You will get an absolute max of 100 with 'efibre' (which isn't fibre); 20 less if you take TV

You can get 360 on UPC

UPCs wireless router is a joke - don't use it and don't bother even looking at speedtests people post using it. Turn the wifi off on the UPC box and get a decent mid range wifi router instead.

Stupid question, but how do you turn the WiFi off on the upc box? I just bought one of those routers because as you said WiFi is brutal,even upc admitted to it,even though we only have 2 phones and one tablet using the WiFi,and it's so freaking slow.

I have lived in celbridge all my life,never had any issues at all. I work in city centre, they definitely need more buses in the morning, it's grand in summer tho,as college kids are off so there is more room on bus. Obviously the earlier you leave for town the earlier you will get there,coming home it's a nightmare,but that's down to the luas work's (that's not celbridge issue and only a problem if you work that side of town).
There is a huge abundance of hair dressers, barbers, chemists, pubs and take aways in celbridge, it's lacking in actual restaurants, but a new one has opened the canteen which I've heard is fantastic, the chef is local and meant to be amazing.
All in all its a nice village with plenty going on and lots of friendly faces.
Castletown is beautiful, particularly if you have children or pets, but even without that it's lovely for a walk.

bittihuduga

this could improve the commute for few-
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/trains-using-phoenix-park-tunnel-will-not-stop-at-heuston-1.2320824

Coopaloop

bittihuduga wrote: »

this could improve the commute for few-
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/trains-using-phoenix-park-tunnel-will-not-stop-at-heuston-1.2320824[/quote

Wow, definitely. That's the main reason I rarely used the train, and it's a pity as its 15 mins from celbridge to Houston, so quick, but useless when you have to wait for a bus to take to you to harcourt street,and sit in traffic along the quays.

mirrorwall14

I've lived in both Maynooth and Celbridge over the last 10 years. I would pick Maynooth over Celbridge in a heart beat for many of the reasons mentioned above. Far superior public transport links. Multiple excellent restaurants and take aways. South Campus is beautiful for walking. The only thing I don't particularly like is the traffic!

Stealthirl

n97 mini wrote: »

Of the big three towns in North Kildare (Leixlip, Maynooth, Celbridge), Celbridge is by far the worst when it comes to public transport.

Have to agree with this,the bus situation has been an issue for years,worse when comeing back from Dublin in my experance as a large number of people from Lucan get on a 67 at ruch hour even though they have the much more options.

L1011 wrote: »

UPCs wireless router is a joke - don't use it and don't bother even looking at speedtests people post using it. Turn the wifi off on the UPC box and get a decent mid range wifi router instead.

Agree here aswell,wired speed is grand but iv switched over to a Neatgear router for Wi-Fi


The 3 large towns in north Kildare [Leixlip,Celbridge and Maynooth] all have there issues and iv lived in Celbridge a good while [originally from Leixlip and in my mid 30s]
All 3 are near each other and when you think of them as a whole there's not alot there lacking.
Leixlip is fantastic for public transport [2 train stations,the better 66 bus and the airport hopper] in my opinion.
Celbridge has a Bus Eireann service aswell if that's a help,its often overlooked by people that live on the 67 route but is handy if you live out the Straffan/Clane rd.
Maynooth has the better nightlife