Monkstown Maps

Our Parish.  Click here for a map showing parish boundaries.  This map will open in a separate window.  Parish boundaries are shown in red. A full list of addresses in the parish can be found at the bottom of this page

Birds Eye View Click Here to see birds eye views on Microsoft Virtual Earth. 

This will open in a separate window with an aerial view of the church.  See note below on how to get other aerial views.  Click on "labels" to see the names of roads on the picture.  Click on "roads" to get a detailed map

Note:- on Microsoft Live Maps you can see different views by clicking on the curved arrows  on the left of the Microsoft screen

Google Map.  Find us on Google maps Here

Monkstown on Historic Maps

Ireland has a rich heritage of historic maps, and Monkstown, also known as Carrickbrennan appears on many.  It's castle and monastery meant that it had greater importance than say Dun Laoghaire through to the 1700s.  Historic Irish maps may be divided into 3 groups:-

(1) Maps that pre-date Sir William Petty's Down survey of 1655-6 are inaccurate by modern standards, although extraordinary for the technology of the period

(2) Maps based on the Down survey have greatly improved accuracy

(3) The Ordnance Survey of 1835 was very detailed and very accurate, and in addition, printing technology was improved.

Examples from all three periods are shown below

1606

Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) is known to students from the Mercator Projection maps of the world.  Many of the so-called Mercator maps were produced by his Amsterdam company after his death, and this one called "Irlandiæ regnum" dates from 1606 or thereabouts.  Mercator was a friend of Ortelius, and they clearly influenced each other.  Dublyn (Dublin) is clearly shown, as are Merion (Merrion), Monston (Monkstown), Dalkey and Bray, although the latter is shown somewhat inland

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Monkstown is also shown on John Speed's 1610 map of Leinster, probably the best known of all historic Irish maps.

1710

After the Down survey of 1655-6, maps of Ireland were much improved, and show the shape of Ireland well defined as we know it today.  This 1710 map by Frederik De Wit  is typical.  It shows a road running southwards from Dublin through Donnybrook and Monkstown to Conoghibray (Bray), and passing by the villages of Bullock and Killiney on the way.

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1756

Roques map of 1756 shows Monkstown as farmland, with a path running down the line of the present Monkstown Road, and a lesser one on the line of Seapoint Avenue.  Monkstown Castle is marked.  The most prominent feature of Monkstown is the pair of rivers which are now culverted where they meet under Pakenham Road.  There is the beginnings of a village in the area around the coffee house which pre-dated the Purty Kitchen.  Note that much of the area now occupied by Upper Georges St and the Peoples Park is marked as Monkstown Common

1816

Taylors map of 1816 shows Monkstown before the arrival of the railway.  It shows the East pier of Dun Laoghaire, but not the East pier.  This map also pre-dates the Ordnance Survey, and is therefore not as accurate as maps after 1837

1837

By 1837, the techniques of printing had improved very much, and map-makers delighted in packing in as much detail as possible.  The map opposite has been enlarged, but the original requires a good magnifying glass to read it.  It was produced by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, a sort of "Readers Digest" of it's time. 

The harbour of Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) had recently been completed. The temporary railway to Dalkey Quarry for transport of blocks for the harbour can be clearly seen.  The Dublin-Kingstown railway had not in fact been completed when the map was drawn (it originally terminated close to the Purty Kitchen) - the cartographer had access to the plans.

At the junction of Cumberland St and York Road, the new town of Kingstown is starting to develop, but the area now called Georges St is almost entirely undeveloped.  Mountpelier parade (off Monkstown Rd) has just been built.  The Church of Ireland, Monkstown is also new. The ruined church "Ru Ch" at Carrickbrennan graveyard is shown.  The two streams can be seen, one passing through Monkstown Valley, and the other passing Monkstown Castle and the graveyard.  Only a pathway is shown for part of Seapoint Avenue, but part of Longford Terrace can be seen, probably under construction at this time.  All of the rest of Monkstown is open country with stately homes.

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