Living in Donabate

jake_ryan_1986 · 21-03-2021 7:11pm #1

Hi I am thinking of buying in Donabate and I would love to know what the area is like. Is there much anti-social behavior?

Dizzyblonde · 21-03-2021 8:26pm

Mod note: I've started a new thread with one of your posts because the threads you posted in were too old.

PCros · 22-03-2021 12:00pm

I know two people who live in Donabate, one in a new house and another in an older part nearer the village and they have no complaints and I have never heard anything from them regarding anti social behaviour.

Only concern is that there is only one main road in and out of Donabate and this feeds four golf courses, Portrane & Newbridge too. I'd say its only a matter of time before the DART will be extended to Donabate but at the same time I hope they don't over populate the area because it would just ruin Donabate as a nice small village.

Inquitus · 22-03-2021 1:27pm

I always thought Donabate was underserved in terms of shops, restaurants etc. I lived there for a year back in 2000 and there has been a ton of houses built since. Also a bit of a pita to get in and out of. Can't see the dart ever going to Donabate, but if you work in town the train service is quick and decent even if you have to stand wedged in every morning.

Wishbone Ash · 22-03-2021 8:26pm

PCros wrote: »

... there is only one main road in and out of Donabate...

2 roads - The Hearse Road and Turvey Avenue. (....and the by-pass opened a year ago so most traffic to and from Portrane needn't go through the village).

AdrianII · 22-03-2021 8:38pm

We moved to donabate in 2014, so coming on 7 years. We absolutely love it out here. Here is my two cents.

Infrastructure:
Pros - good train service. M1 on its doorstep. New bypass to take traffic away from village.

Cons - two busy roads servicing the area. No bike lane but a new bike lane connecting malahide in the near future.

Facilities: pros - 3 or 4 golf courses. Beautiful beaches, Newbridge House,woods at ballymastone, allotments, nature reserve at Turvey, scrumdiddlies ðŸ˜€

Cons - lack of shops, one supervalu, two pubs, hotel at beach, but then again malahide is 5 mins on the train or 20euro in a taxi

Connectivity: fibre broadband in the area

Little to non anti social behaviour.

Schools no comment as I don't know.

Close enough to swords and the pavilions but then again far enough away at the same time. Like wise the city, last train from town is at 11.30pm if one was able to go to a pub

AdrianII · 22-03-2021 8:41pm

Dart was due to come out to us but maynooth line has been prioritised, the dart will now arrive when they electrify to balbriggan.

To answer another question, yes lots of new houses have been builtin the 7 years we are here but it still has that village feel.

Rashers72 · 22-03-2021 9:01pm

I wonder [to the nearest year] when anyone in Donabate can expect to step onto a DART?
And what that journey time to Tara St or Pearse would be like?
To be fair, not many people calling for the extension of the DART as far as Drogheda. Most would just like better journey times, higher frequency, greater capacity and not the standard 10 mins sitting outside Connolly to let extra trains from Newbridge etc. pull in. Service has gotten progressively poorer on Northern Suburban line in recent years but zero political interest to improve things so TFI just let the service standards slip. They should have stepped in, but are only interested in shiny brochures about services years away.

Inquitus · 22-03-2021 9:13pm

Rashers72 wrote: »

I wonder [to the nearest year] when anyone in Donabate can expect to step onto a DART?
And what that journey time to Tara St or Pearse would be like?
To be fair, not many people calling for the extension of the DART as far as Drogheda. Most would just like better journey times, higher frequency, greater capacity and not the standard 10 mins sitting outside Connolly to let extra trains from Newbridge etc. pull in. Service has gotten progressively poorer on Northern Suburban line in recent years but zero political interest to improve things so TFI just let the service standards slip. They should have stepped in, but are only interested in shiny brochures about services years away.

The existing train connection is far faster than the Dart would ever be, from my memory of living there it stopped maybe once if that before Connolly. The Dart would bring a more regular, but much slower service.

AdrianII · 22-03-2021 10:17pm

Malahide, portmarnok, clongriffin, howth junction then town. The dart would add at least 5 extra stops.

Rashers72 · 22-03-2021 10:48pm

Inquitus wrote: »

The existing train connection is far faster than the Dart would ever be, from my memory of living there it stopped maybe once if that before Connolly. The Dart would bring a more regular, but much slower service.

That is the part I think both Iarnrod Eireann and TFI fail to understand. They think Irish rail customers on suburban trains have zero interest in a fast rail service like that in any other European capital city. They will spend billions of public money and the steam trains were quicker.
Back on topic, I think Donabate continues to offer great value in Fingal, but you might need to drive for the next 5 years. Maybe working from home will reduce the chronic overcrowding of the past few years.

PCros · 22-03-2021 11:36pm

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

2 roads - The Hearse Road and Turvey Avenue. (....and the by-pass opened a year ago so most traffic to and from Portrane needn't go through the village).

Yes indeed but I said main road. Turvey Avenue is a bottle neck not fit for purpose with hundreds of new houses off it.

PCros · 22-03-2021 11:39pm

AdrianII wrote: »

Malahide, portmarnok, clongriffin, howth junction then town. The dart would add at least 5 extra stops.

Malahide folk will be raging that they won’t get their seats in the morning.

babyboom · 22-03-2021 11:59pm

We've lived in Donabate since 2003 having moved here from Swords. There's a great community of people living here and great amenities like Newbridge, the beaches, Turvey Nature Reserve, Ballymastone woods and the cliff walk. We have great primary schools and a very good secondary school. The people and the amenities are the pluses. On the downside, it has been over developed with houses and apartments over the past few years with no extra infrastructure added. The new road will be lined with houses eventually and little or no plans to add extra shops or facilities. My kids are older now and they hate it as there is nothing for them here. Regarding transport, the train is not all the great and the bus service only goes to Swords apart from one express service in the morning and evening run by an independent company. My middle child is in DCU and, when colleges are open, it takes a bus to Swords and then one on to DCU which can take him well over an hour to an hour and a half for what is a 20 minute journey in a car. There has been some anti social behaviour in the past few years, we have the usual gangs of teens getting up to no good, they even set one of the chemist shops on fire a few years ago, but generally it's a quiet enough place.

shesty · 23-03-2021 4:41pm

Rashers72 wrote: »

I wonder [to the nearest year] when anyone in Donabate can expect to step onto a DART?
And what that journey time to Tara St or Pearse would be like?
To be fair, not many people calling for the extension of the DART as far as Drogheda. Most would just like better journey times, higher frequency, greater capacity and not the standard 10 mins sitting outside Connolly to let extra trains from Newbridge etc. pull in. Service has gotten progressively poorer on Northern Suburban line in recent years but zero political interest to improve things so TFI just let the service standards slip. They should have stepped in, but are only interested in shiny brochures about services years away.

I would literally not bother thinking about that.
Grew up in Lusk and got the train to school (northbound) and college(southbound) from about 92/93 onwards.Then to work in the 00s. Still living out around this way. The DART has been promised for aeons but sure it hasn't happened. Fingal falls down badly when it comes to public transport, that is one major disadvantage to living here. Any addition of DARTS will have an inevitable knock-on impact on the number of diesel trains running too, so there is a much bigger mess there to sort out to my mind.Connolly is a choke point too. But there is no interest in improving it.

Wishbone Ash · 24-03-2021 10:44pm

PCros wrote: »

Yes indeed but I said main road. Turvey Avenue is a bottle neck not fit for purpose with hundreds of new houses off it.

Turvey Avenue a bottleneck?

I've been driving/cycling to work via Turvey Avenue for 30 years and I can't ever recall being held up on it (apart from roadworks etc.) It's much better since they widened it about 20 years ago. Hundreds of houses off it?? - apart from the Donabate end, there are only a handful of houses on it.

T-Maxx · 25-03-2021 9:31pm

Think the poster meant Hearse Rd instead of Turvey.

PCros · 26-03-2021 11:48am

T-Maxx wrote: »

Think the poster meant Hearse Rd instead of Turvey.

Apologies yes I got them mixed up - I've been getting the mixed up for years.:o

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Turvey Avenue a bottleneck?

Hundreds of houses off it?? - apart from the Donabate end, there are only a handful of houses on it.

Indeed hundreds of houses, it doesn’t really matter what end it is to be honest. It is still going to get busier as they are still building more phases in Beresford as we speak.

With regards to the Hearse Road, it is fantastic that this bypasses the village, but if you drive up the new road you will see that they have left multiple future accesses on it which is assuming that there is going to be more houses built on the lands either side. Also I know it’s in the pipeline for a few years but that bend needs to be corrected just before Newbridge as that wall seems to be crashed into on a weekly basis.

I'd wager it’s going to become a similar sized town to Malahide in a few years, only difference there is that there are 4 roads into Malahide as opposed to two in Donabate. I really think traffic into and out of Donabate will progressively get worse which is a shame really as it is one of my favourite towns around NCD.

Spook_ie · 30-03-2021 11:37am

https://donabateportranecommunity.com/

Glenveagh Living Ltd expect to deliver approximately 1,200 residential units with a tenure mix as prescribed in the tender of 60% private housing, 20% private discounted housing and 20% social housing. The private discounted housing is expected to be priced at €250,000 for a two-bedroom house and €270,000 for a three-bedroom house. Every house or apartment delivered by Glenveagh Living Ltd will carry a minimum of an A energy rating.

Yeah both Turvey Avenue and Hearse Road will be bottlenecks, perhaps more so the Hearse Road with it's direct link to the village bybass and the new housing mentioned at Ballymastone.

Sleepy · 30-03-2021 3:05pm

Ballymastone is a big worry for those of us on the peninsula alright - not least because the original plan was for the development to be 40% social until the developer told the council they wouldn't be able to sell the private units with that high a social mix. Still worry it'll come in the back door via the usual homeless charity trusts / investors letting them back to the council etc.

I've lived in many parts of the country and I'm very happy to have bought here in Portrane though. There aren't many affordable coastal locations in Dublin really: Donabate/Portrane, Lusk/Rush and Balbriggan are about it and I think we picked right out of the three. Are Skerries, Clontarf, Malahide or Howth nicer? Almost definitely, all are better serviced by infrastructure and transport but you'll pay at least twice, if not three times as much, for a similar property in those areas. Some of the locals here can be a bit rough around the edges but that's all it is, there's very little actual anti-social behaviour.

Tropheus · 02-04-2021 11:02am

The distributor road in Donabate was built to open up the Ballymastone lands for development. The fact that it bypasses the village is secondary.

I too see the Hearse Road becoming a bottle neck. It only takes a few cars backed up at the lights at the roundabout to block access to the M1. Even a minor accident will block the road in one if not both directions. There is no doubt that traffic will increase significantly in the next few years.

Turvey is an alternative but doesn't really get you anywhere unless you're heading north. Heading south, the lights on the Hearse Road roundabout will still be a bottleneck.

I've had a couple of people say to me that they opted not to move to Donabate as they were concerned about access in the longer term.

Living in Donabate

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