placenamesAshtown
Baile an Ásaigh
Ashtown’s history connects the Royal Canal with the nearby Phoenix Park demesne and a failed attack on the Lord Lieutenant during the independence struggle.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Baile an Ásaigh · Irish · main form · validated name
- Ashtown · English · main form
Place & story
The Royal Canal reaches Ashtown
The Royal Canal Company was established in 1789 to develop freight and passenger transport between Dublin and the Shannon. Canal construction reached Ashtown by 1792. The double-chambered tenth lock retains dressed limestone walls, mooring rings, gate recesses and steps connecting different levels. Its paired chambers accommodated the change in height within a compact stretch of waterway. The lock’s carefully worked masonry preserves the engineering that made the canal a practical transport route through this part of Dublin. [2]
A tower house hidden inside a mansion
Nearby in Phoenix Park, Ashtown Castle survives as a restored tower house. The Office of Public Works dates it probably to the seventeenth century, while allowing the possibility of a fifteenth-century origin. For many years its walls were enclosed within a Georgian mansion used by the under-secretary for Ireland. Demolition of the later house in the late 1980s exposed the older structure. The surrounding demesne also retains a walled kitchen garden restored to a Victorian layout, preserving another phase of the site’s domestic landscape. [3]
Martin Savage and the attack on Lord French
On19 December 1919, an IRA party attacked Lord Lieutenant French at Ashtown. French escaped, but Lieutenant Martin Savage of the Dublin Brigade was killed. In his Bureau of Military History statement, Frank Henderson described the operation as organised at general headquarters level, with preparations unknown to the battalion commanders. His account places Savage among the volunteers participating in the attack and records his employment on North Strand Road. Savage died in an action aimed at the head of the British administration in Ireland. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ashtown. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Tenth Lock, Royal Canal, register 50060121 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Phoenix Park Visitor Centre and Ashtown Castle · Office of Public Works, Heritage Ireland
- Witness statement 821, page 69: Ashtown attack · Frank Henderson, Bureau of Military History
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-02-17. How this page was prepared.