Coastal towns north of Dublin: where would you choose?

KWilson15

If your budget was E350,000 maximum

If your preferred area was north of Dublin

If you were looking for a home with two to three bedrooms and a back garden (a small one would do) - preferably a house, but a ground floor apartment with a garden would be fine

If you worked mainly from home and only had to commute to Dublin a couple of times a month

If your priorties were to find somewhere by the sea with other nice places to take the kids for walks (and preferably where you could take the dog off the lead!)

If you're happy enough with the quiet life so don't need a bunch of clubs, pubs and restaurants

Would you choose..... see poll!

LirW

Dundalk would it be for me, either Blackrock or the Area of Point Road. Drogheda is neat too, but I prefer Dundalk. I do not like any of the town named in your poll.

whippet

Termonfeckin or baltray

private

I chose Skerries for a multitude of reasons but Rush would probably be better for dog walking.

athtrasna

Moved from Accommodation and Property. Local forum charter applies

Cloudio9

I think Skerries is a good balance. Has train service to Dublin. Attractive village with good options for eating. Has Ardgillan. Not too far outside Dublin area for shopping trips etc. Close to airport.

If your WFH situation changes in the future you are still a reasonable 35-40 minute train commute to Dublin.

Kintarō Hattori

It's a bit of a tough one as Skerries and Drogheda have their plus points but it'd really all depend on the house as it's perfectly easy to commute from the likes of Bettystown and Drogheda to Dublin. That said Termonfeckin and Clougherhead are in a stunning location so it'd really boil down to what type of house/grounds I'd get.
Personally I'd want something with a large garden, a hefty wide open area between my nearest neighbours and ideally off some quiet road with lots of trees around me. If the right house was in Skerries at one end or Termonfeckin at the other, then I'd be happy in either place.

Dizzyblonde

I think Skerries would be my first choice of coastal town if the house type/view/proximity to the beach were right

plodder

+1 for Skerries, but I'd say prices are higher there.

Sleepy

You forgot Donabate / Portrane. Which I'd obviously recommend

hammy007

Sleepy wrote: »

You forgot Donabate / Portrane. Which I'd obviously recommend

Would agree! Donabate is hidden gem and has everything - beach, Newbridge, train, and a few shops/pubs/restaurants. Skerries would have my vote too, but Donabate is handier to get to town.

Sleepy

A damn sight cheaper than Skerries too.

TBH, if I'd the money, Skerries is a better area on balance but 350k would get you a lot more house in Donabate or Portrane than it would in Skerries.

Sure, you'd get even more for your money in Balbriggan or Bettystown but you'd be that bit further out from the city and, being honest, I wouldn't fancy living in either area.

Lamper.sffc

Skerries is the nicest town. If price was an issue then Rush. Still a good place to live and not too far from Skerries.

RobFowl

You would struggle to get anything with a garden in skerries for 350k
Rush is cheaper and nice but a bit of a mess planning wise
Loughshinney very small and again 350k wouldn't get you much
I like Balbriggan but its a bit run down in places
Drogheda has nice parts but is not on the coast as such really

Inquitus

350 will get you a 3 Bed Semi in Barnageeragh Cove in Skerries, that would be my pick of the available coastal towns mentioned.

Beasty

Skerries has seen limited property development over recent years compared to some of the other towns in the area. It's retained it's character, and has a fantastic community spirit. It's small enough for everyone to feel part of that community, but manages to provide a fantastic range of activities year-round. Loughshinney Motorcycle Supporters Club put on the Skerries 100, there's the Soundwaves Festival, the annual Ras Cycling race has finished in the town for over a decade and there are numerous other events on throughout the year.

Skerries also caters for various sports including Soccer, Rugby, GAA, Cricket and has an active sailing community. Add to that the recent Tidy Towns award which further highlights the sense of community in the town. I really cannot believe how fortunate I was in discovering this town shortly ahead of moving over to Ireland just over a decade ago.

private

I have just purchased in Skerries and have no connection to the area. The tidy town award was a real selling point for me. Community spirit is so important. I was also seriously considering Rush because of the Gaelscoil but the train connections from skerries to the city and the excellent secondary school won the day. I just wish they had a Gaelscoil and an Aldi.

As regards the rest

I like Donabate but village life is not connected to the coast in the same way. I do really like it and I even had my wedding reception there.
Loughshinny too small. No train.
Balbriggan too big, too much development
Malahide too expensive, Don't like the beach.

I was only considering places with good sailing clubs in the end.

Can't comment on the rest.

barney shamrock

Skerries has storm in a teacup!

Kintarō Hattori

Sleepy wrote: »

A damn sight cheaper than Skerries too.

TBH, if I'd the money, Skerries is a better area on balance but 350k would get you a lot more house in Donabate or Portrane than it would in Skerries.

Sure, you'd get even more for your money in Balbriggan or Bettystown but you'd be that bit further out from the city and, being honest, I wouldn't fancy living in either area.

*Fisticuffs*

Sleepy

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

*Fisticuffs*

That's certainly part of the town's problems!

minikin

Balbriggan - because it actually has Ardgillan.
Three / four bed on at 300,000 in Fancourt Road with beautiful sea views, small mature private estate in very quiet part of the town, ideal for families! Five mins walk to the train, five mins drive to the motorway, has a cinema and a shopping centre which boasts Ireland's biggest lingerie department apparently.

Wishbone Ash

minikin wrote: »

Balbriggan......
.......Three / four bed on at 300,000 in Fancourt Road with beautiful sea views, small mature private estate in very quiet part of the town, ideal for families! Five mins walk to the train, five mins drive to the motorway, has a cinema and a shopping centre....

You're ain't selling it to me!

If I didn't know the area, and saw that a 3/4 bed house with the above described amenities is only €300k I'd be looking for the catch.

minikin

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

You're ain't selling it to me!

If I didn't know the area, and saw that a 3/4 bed house with the above described amenities is only €300k I'd be looking for the catch.

I'm not selling anything to anyone, just passing on information that could be useful to the o.p.

The catch? That would have to be the equivalent of badge snobbery with cars... if you know the area then you know what a gem it is, if you're only basing your views on something you've heard about it or read about the town on Facebook then you're welcome to your opinion. Fancourt Road is a mature respectable area, just like a lot of other areas of 'old balbriggan' which are getting tarred by the same brush of ignorance by people who have heard rumours about the newer areas and extrapolate that to the whole town.

Kintarō Hattori

Sleepy wrote: »

That's certainly part of the town's problems!

Ah I jest, it's hardly the most desirable part of north Dublin to live in but to be fair to it, I've lived there for six years and haven't really seen that much trouble- certainly no more than anywhere else. I think your experience of it can vary hugely depending on which part of the town you live in. While it doesn't have the charm of Skerries it does have some major plus points but each to their own of course.

billyhead

Currently living in Rush myself but if I could afford it I would move to Skerries. Its a lovely seaside town with great Bars, restaurants and walks.

Sleepy

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Ah I jest, it's hardly the most desirable part of north Dublin to live in but to be fair to it, I've lived there for six years and haven't really seen that much trouble- certainly no more than anywhere else. I think your experience of it can vary hugely depending on which part of the town you live in. While it doesn't have the charm of Skerries it does have some major plus points but each to their own of course.

Ah, I'm just teasing, I've family in Derham Park and lived in Stamullen for a while where Balbriggan was the nearest town for shopping / decent take-aways so I know the town fairly well. If the OP's budget was lower, I'd recommend it but since it's not, I'd recommend trying for some nicer areas in the North County.

seagull

barney shamrock wrote: »

Skerries has storm in a teacup!

Donabate has scrumdiddlys

LeoB

Obviously I will recommend Rush.

The only thing against it is the Main Street but hopefully that will be sorted soon.

The town has improved a lot over the last few years and is continuing to develop thanks to Rush T.T.

There is good value to be had around Rush for €350.000.
There are plenty of amenities and clubs like the other towns mentioned. G.A.A. Soccer, Cricket, Camera club, golf club an excellent sailing club with good facilities. Millbank theatre which is top class. Decent pubs some of them do excellent food.
Probably the biggest selling point is the 2 beachs, North and South and the walk to Drummanagh across the cliffs and coves at top of north beach. Plenty of space for dogs. Few take aways and Indian and Thai cuisine. Tesco and Eurospar are main shops.
Good bus service to city and the train station is 30 minute walk from church
There are 5 schools in the parish 3 primary, A Gael scoil and St. Josephs secondary school and each is quite good.

Like minikin I agree there is a badge of snobbery attached to living in some parts of Fingal and a badge of snobbery attached to living in areas within towns. Think that is everywhere. I work in Balbriggan and it has some very good areas just a few bad sheep and bad planning. Fancourt would be very good spot to live.

By and large North Dublin is a good place to live

Kintarō Hattori

LeoB wrote: »

Obviously I will recommend Rush.

The only thing against it is the Main Street but hopefully that will be sorted soon.

The town has improved a lot over the last few years and is continuing to develop thanks to Rush T.T.

There is good value to be had around Rush for €350.000.
There are plenty of amenities and clubs like the other towns mentioned. G.A.A. Soccer, Cricket, Camera club, golf club an excellent sailing club with good facilities. Millbank theatre which is top class. Decent pubs some of them do excellent food.
Probably the biggest selling point is the 2 beachs, North and South and the walk to Drummanagh across the cliffs and coves at top of north beach. Plenty of space for dogs. Few take aways and Indian and Thai cuisine. Tesco and Eurospar are main shops.
Good bus service to city and the train station is 30 minute walk from church
There are 5 schools in the parish 3 primary, A Gael scoil and St. Josephs secondary school and each is quite good.

Like minikin I agree there is a badge of snobbery attached to living in some parts of Fingal and a badge of snobbery attached to living in areas within towns. Think that is everywhere. I work in Balbriggan and it has some very good areas just a few bad sheep and bad planning. Fancourt would be very good spot to live.

By and large North Dublin is a good place to live

You've missed the single greatest thing about Rush..... the spice bag from the Ocean Inn. I've deviated off of the M1 on my way home to Balbriggan many a time to go get a bag for my neighbour and myself. They're divine.

LeoB

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

You've missed the single greatest thing about Rush..... the spice bag from the Ocean Inn. I've deviated off of the M1 on my way home to Balbriggan many a time to go get a bag for my neighbour and myself. They're divine.

The Ocean Inn is doing serious business and is one of the best take aways in North Dublin but my last visit was not so good.

And speaking of D'Vine Great reports of the new D'Vine opened where the Thatch was

Where would you get a sunrise like it??

51/52 Rush Sunrise on North beach by Leo Bissett, on Flickr

Tayschren

Skerries is the best of the list, but if you have the money Malahide should be top of the list by a country mile

Inquitus

Latest phase of Barnageeragh Cove nearly sold out after the showing last weekend. €335k for the lowest price 3 beds, with one 4 bed left at €430,000. You could probably sneak a 3 bed in Seabury for about €430k as a comparison to Malahide.

RuMan

Depends what money you have.

Malahide probably although depends parts of kinsealy swords are being sold as malahide.
I really like skerries although could use a big supermarket. Balbriggan gets a bad rep but it's improved a lot and you'll get a lot more for your euro there. Access is pretty good to city centre as your on the M1. I find Rush/Lusk a bit isolated as they're a good bit from the motorway.

Inquitus

RuMan wrote: »

Depends what money you have.

Malahide probably although depends parts of kinsealy swords are being sold as malahide.
I really like skerries although could use a big supermarket. Balbriggan gets a bad rep but it's improved a lot and you'll get a lot more for your euro there. Access is pretty good to city centre as your on the M1. I find Rush/Lusk a bit isolated as they're a good bit from the motorway.

Within the remit of the OP I would pick Skerries or Malahide, the houses that are considered Malahide but in reality are much nearer to Swords Village than Malahide Village I would not want to live in myself. The cheapest bit of Malahide that is really Malahide is probably Seabury and it's certainly the only area in "real" Malahide where prices are remotely in the same ballpark as Skerries, though you likely have to drop a bedroom to do so.

I wouldn't like to live in Balbriggan myself, I have never warmed to the place, and I would agree Rush and Lusk are a bit isolated for my taste.

LeoB

A lot of snobbery around.

Beasty

LeoB wrote: »

A lot of snobbery around.

Maybe, but it's the nature of the topic. It's only natural to "defend" your own territory at the expense of others, except when you live in (or around;)) Skerries - it needs no help in defending itself in this forum.

Oh, and that sunrise looked even more spectacular in Skerries:pac:

RuMan

Inquitus wrote: »

Within the remit of the OP I would pick Skerries or Malahide, the houses that are considered Malahide but in reality are much nearer to Swords Village than Malahide Village I would not want to live in myself. The cheapest bit of Malahide that is really Malahide is probably Seabury and it's certainly the only area in "real" Malahide where prices are remotely in the same ballpark as Skerries, though you likely have to drop a bedroom to do so.

I wouldn't like to live in Balbriggan myself, I have never warmed to the place, and I would agree Rush and Lusk are a bit isolated for my taste.

Kind of agree, but I'd much rather live in the centre of skerries then kinsealy.

There are some very nice parts to Balbriggan given the price difference.

shesty

For 350k?Rush.I think you get the biggest bang for your buck there. Some of these posts are funny :-) I grew up/went to school/socialise(d)/currently live in the Rush/Lusk/Balbriggan/Skerries part of the world myself. Personally, while I do like Lusk, it has nothing in it.You'd get a nice house in Orlynn Pk or Dun Emer for 350k but the town has next to nothing in it and I'm not mad on a lot of the new developments myself.Skerries is lovely, loads of places to eat etc, but way overpriced.And you pay a premium on everything.Balbriggan....hit and miss.It's got far bigger in the last 15-20 years but I don't like the main street area, it was always full of take aways which I thought was a huge pity.That said,it's facilities as a town have vastly improved, but for me it's way too far out and just not a great town.For me, I do like Rush.It's good a decent village, two fabulous beaches and quite a wide spread of housing options.And personally, our house location also gives us all the benefit of Skerries and it's coffee shops and amenities in a five min drive distance,without having to pay to live there, plus Argillan Castle is ten minutes away.
We have kids too, and this is a really good part of the country to live in....we have great facilities with the beaches, Argillan, Newbridge House, Malahide Castle etc all close by and a Dublin city 40mins away.

RuMan

shesty wrote: »

For 350k?Rush.I think you get the biggest bang for your buck there. Some of these posts are funny :-) I grew up/went to school/socialise(d)/currently live in the Rush/Lusk/Balbriggan/Skerries part of the world myself. Personally, while I do like Lusk, it has nothing in it.You'd get a nice house in Orlynn Pk or Dun Emer for 350k but the town has next to nothing in it and I'm not mad on a lot of the new developments myself.Skerries is lovely, loads of places to eat etc, but way overpriced.And you pay a premium on everything.Balbriggan....hit and miss.It's got far bigger in the last 15-20 years but I don't like the main street area, it was always full of take aways which I thought was a huge pity.That said,it's facilities as a town have vastly improved, but for me it's way too far out and just not a great town.For me, I do like Rush.It's good a decent village, two fabulous beaches and quite a wide spread of housing options.And personally, our house location also gives us all the benefit of Skerries and it's coffee shops and amenities in a five min drive distance,without having to pay to live there, plus Argillan Castle is ten minutes away.
We have kids too, and this is a really good part of the country to live in....we have great facilities with the beaches, Argillan, Newbridge House, Malahide Castle etc all close by and a Dublin city 40mins away.

Is Rush really closer to Dublin city then Balbriggan given its a good bit from the M1 and indeed the train station ? That 33 bus takes for ever, at least you have the bus eireann bus in balbriggan.

LeoB

RuMan wrote: »

Is Rush really closer to Dublin city then Balbriggan given its a good bit from the M1 and indeed the train station ? That 33 bus takes for ever, at least you have the bus eireann bus in balbriggan.

Much of a muchness really. The problem with Balbriggan is it is harder to get out some mornings and back into some evenings, mind you tractors can be a problem but usually only in the evenings.

Probably the downside of Balbriggan is the Main St/Drogheda St/Dublin St area. A lot of run down buildings and closed shops. Fingal C.C done a great job developing the square a few years ago but like Rush the few run down buildings let it down.

Lusk should get some facilities, be they playing pitchs, playgrounds or decent green spaces seeing the amount of development going on.

Bunt25

Very useful info. We are also looking to buy in the Skerries/Rush/Donabate area. While I prefer Skerries, my biggest concern is the secondary school there. My kids are reaching secondary school age in the next couple of years and the school seems to be heavily oversubscribed, so there would be a chance they would have to commute to another village for school. I think Donabate is starting to experience a similar problem. For that reason, I'm thinking Rush (which is also lovely) is the safest bet. But maybe I'm wrong...

shesty

Bunt, I grew up in Lusk and went to school in Balbriggan.
It's really not a big deal, lots of teenagers do it round here. They get the train and the Dublin bus. There's also numerous minibuses and coaches that go around the villages that bring them to and from all the different secondary schools. I see the groups of them waiting in all sorts of places to be picked up every day. If you're dead set on them going to Skerries school, then fine, but otherwise I wouldn't worry too much about that.