Howth Head, a peninsula 15km northeast of Dublin City, has been immortalised in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Howth is a bustling village that offers visitors a myriad of attractions - look out for Lambay Island, Ireland’s Eye, Howth Castle, The National Transport Museum, the Martello Tower and the Baily Lighthouse. Wildlife enthusiasts will adore this area, particularly Ireland’s Eye and its bird sanctuary which boasts guillemots, razorbills, fulmars, gulls and gannets. If you’re lucky, you may even see grey seals diving for fish just offshore.
The Irish name for Howth is Binn Éadair, meaning Éadair's Peak or Hill. In Old Irish, the name is recorded as Etar, which was first plundered by the Vikings around 819.
The name Howth is thought to be of Norse origin, perhaps being derived from the Old Norse Hǫfuð ("head" in English). Norse Vikings colonised the eastern shores of Ireland and built the settlement of Dyflinn (one of two settlements which became Dublin) as a strategic base between Scandinavia and the Mediterranean.
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