County Dublin · Leinster

Howth

Binn Éadair

the Irish name is 'Éadar's peak'; the English name is Old Norse hǫfuð, 'head'

The story

Two peoples named the same rock for different things: the Irish for a man, the Norse for its shape. It has been lived on since prehistoric times, it holds a portal tomb older than the pyramids, and the guns for the Irish Volunteers were landed at its pier from the Asgard in 1914.

Worth seeing nearby
  • Clontarf · Good Friday 1014: Brian Boru's forces break Leinster and Dublin's Vikings — and Brian is killed praying in his tent. Now a quiet seafront suburb.
  • Drumanagh promontory fort · A headland fort that has yielded Roman coins, brooches and pottery — the strongest evidence of a Roman trading post (or a Romanised Irish king) in Ireland.
  • Gleann na Smól — Oisín returns · After 300 years in Tír na nÓg, Oisín came home, touched the ground helping men lift a stone, and aged in an instant — to tell Patrick the tales of the Fianna.

All of these are pinned on the Hidden Ireland map.

All towns and cities → · Know Howth better? Add to the story.