Howth Head

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Howth Head viewed from Dollymount Strand on the North Bull Island in Dublin Bay

Howth Head (Ceann Binn Éadair in Irish) is a headland north of Dublin City in Ireland, near the districts of Baldoyle and Portmarnock. Sutton lies at the entry to the headland and on part of the southern side, and Howth district occupies the rest, with the village and harbour on the northern side.

Originally an island, Howth Head is connected to the mainland via a narrow strip of land, or tombolo, and forms the northerly bound of the great crescent of Dublin Bay, corresponding to Killiney Head in the south.

Most of the headland is hilly, with peaks such as the 171m Shielmartin Hill and 163m Ben of Howth, and there are steep cliffs around parts. Gorse grows in many places on the headland.

The earliest mention of the peninsula was on a map attributed to Claudius Ptolemy, where it was called Edri Deserta or in Greek Edrou Heremos. Here it was portrayed as an island, but it is not clear if this was due to actual separation from the headland or inaccurate information available to the cartographer.

As one of the northern termini of the Dublin Area Rapid Transit system (DART), Howth is a popular destination for day-trippers from the capital. Hikers make for the ancient cairn on Howth summit, from where, on clear days, the Wicklow Mountains can be seen, with Dublin city below. Slieve Donard, an 852 metre peak in Northern Ireland may also be visible - a distance of 90 km (56 mi). Quite frequently, Snowdon (1,085 m) in Snowdonia National Park in Wales can be seen - a distance of 138 km (86 mi).

Howth head also happens to be the location where Leopold Bloom proposes to Molly in James Joyce's Ulysses. In the short story Eveline, another work of James Joyce's from the collection, "Dubliners", Eveline and her family have a picnic at the Hill of Howth.

Howth Head is also mentioned in the lyrics of the title track of Kate Bush's 1989 album, The Sensual World: '...took six big wheels and rolled our bodies / off of Howth Head and into the flesh, mmh, yes...'.