The one thing to do
If you have an hour in Ringsend, walk the Great South Wall. It runs out into Dublin Bay to the Poolbeg Lighthouse, it costs nothing, and the walk gives you the port on one side, the bay on the other and the city skyline behind. Everything else here is context; the wall is the reason to come.
Is the Great South Wall open?
Dublin Port reopened the area around Poolbeg Lighthouse in March 2026 after repairs. Follow posted access and safety signs, and check the Dublin Port page for the latest notices before you go.
The wall was completed in 1795 and was built to stop the harbour silting up. The red Poolbeg Lighthouse at the far end, first built in 1767, marks the harbour mouth. You can’t go inside it.
One honest warning: the wall is exposed, and the surface can be uneven and slippery. Keep back from the edges, hold onto hats, wear shoes with grip, and turn back in strong winds or if waves are coming over the wall. Go in the morning, before the afternoon breeze builds off the bay.
The chimneys
The two concrete chimneys of the old Poolbeg Generating Station rise to about 207m above Dublin Bay. The station stopped generating in 2010 and the chimneys are still standing because a local campaign fought to keep them. Dubliners now treat them as an unofficial welcome-home marker on the flight path into the airport. You get a clear view of them from the riverside walkways or from Ringsend Park.
History, and Raytown
Ringsend (Irish: An Rinn) sits on the south bank of the River Liffey, about two kilometres east of the city centre, on what was once a narrow peninsula cut off from the city by the estuary of the River Dodder. The name derives from Rin-Aun, ‘point of the tide’. For centuries it lived on saltworks, fishing and the ships crossing the Irish Sea, which landed here before the deep-water quays were built upriver.
The nickname Raytown comes from the battered ray that became a standard chip-shop fish here in the mid-20th century. The 19th century brought shipyards and the Catholic church on Thorncastle Street; the 20th brought decline, and then the tech offices and apartments that now ring the regenerated Grand Canal Dock next door.
The area turns up in Irish history. Oliver Cromwell’s forces came into Dublin through here in August 1649. In the 1916 Rising, Boland’s Mill became a key rebel position, held by the garrison under Éamon de Valera; volunteer Patrick Whelan died defending it.
What else is here
- St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church (Thorncastle Street, 1859) and St Matthew’s Church of Ireland in neighbouring Irishtown, which dates to 1704–1706.
- Boland’s Mill, now apartments, with a plaque marking its 1916 role.
- Ringsend Park, with the Irishtown Stadium, sports pitches and Clanna Gael Fontenoy GAA club. Check opening times locally before you go. The Ringsend Regatta is run by local rowing clubs; check local listings for dates.
Food and getting there
Ringsend’s waterfront pubs and cafés do seafood and standard Irish pub fare, and Thorncastle Street is the place to look for a takeaway. Battered ray with chips is the old local favourite.
Public transport serves the area, with Lansdowne Road and Dublin Pearse stations both within walking distance and the Luas Red Line ending at The Point across the river. Check current Dublin Bus and rail timetables before you travel. Drivers reach the area via the East Link Toll Bridge; check parking arrangements locally and do the walk on foot.
Time it for a dry morning: wall first, ray second.