Father Collins Park in Donaghmede was Ireland’s first sustainable park, and the reason is hard to miss: five wind turbines stand over it, generating enough to power the park’s lighting and changing rooms. It opened in May 2009 on the north-east edge of Dublin, and for a visitor it’s the main reason to come – with a genuine medieval ruin a few streets away to round out an hour or two.
Be clear about what Donaghmede is, though: a residential suburb off the M50, not a tourist town. The pleasure here is a good park, a quiet ruin and an easy DART ride, not a day of sights.
Father Collins Park
The park splits between active and quiet. There are six football pitches, a skate park and two playgrounds, a perimeter track for running and cycling, and outdoor chess and draughts boards near the picnic tables; wooded paths follow the old Grange Stream through it. The five 50kW turbines that power it are the headline, but it works just as well as an ordinary big green space. Entry is free and the main circuit is wheelchair accessible.
Grange Abbey
A few minutes away, off the main road, stand the ruins of Grange Abbey – a small stone chapel from the late 13th or early 14th century, built to serve a monastic farm, or grange. It hosted a parliamentary meeting in the 14th century before falling out of use by the early 1600s. It’s a protected National Monument, free to enter and open year-round, reached by a short, well-kept path. Local tradition also remembers a Saint Donagh’s Well nearby, long since lost to development but preserved in the suburb’s name (Domhnach Míde).
Around the suburb
Holy Trinity Parish Church, with its sharp cruciform profile, serves the Donaghmede–Clongriffin–Balgriffin area and hosts concerts and events. For everyday needs, Donaghmede Shopping Centre stands on the site of the old Donaghmede House: a Dunnes Stores anchor, around 50 shops, cafés, a Dublin City Library branch, and more than 600 free parking spaces with EV charging and GoCar bays. Two historic streams thread the area – the Grange Stream, partly on the surface, and the mostly culverted Kilbarrack (Daunagh) Stream; the open part of the Grange Stream forms a tree-lined promenade linking Father Collins Park to the coast walk at Kilbarrack, which cyclists can follow straight into the wider coastal network.
Getting there
Howth Junction & Donaghmede station sits on the Dublin–Belfast line, with frequent DART services to the city centre in about ten minutes and north toward Malahide and Howth; Clongriffin station adds another link. Dublin Bus routes 15, H1 and 27X run along Grange Road into the city. Driving, the R809 (Grange Road) connects to Baldoyle and Howth and the R139 to the M50 and M1, with free on-street parking around the park and shopping centre. Both Father Collins Park and Grange Abbey are open from dawn to dusk.
Take the DART out from town for the park and the abbey, and you won’t need a car for either.