History of Howth

class="apple-converted-space"> colonised the eastern shores of Ireland and built the settlement of Dublin as a strategic base between Scandinavia and the Mediterranean. Norse vikings first invaded Howth in 819.

After Brian Ború, the High King of Ireland, defeated the Norse in 1014, many Norse fled to Howth to regroup and remained a force until their final defeat in Fingal in the middle of the 11th century. Howth still remained under the control of Irish and localized Norsemen until the invasion of Ireland by the Anglo-Normans in 1169.

Without the support of either the Irish or Scandinavians, Howth was isolated and fell to the Normans in 1177. One of the winning Normans, Armoricus (or Almeric) Tristam, was granted much of the land between the village and Sutton. Tristam took on the name of the saint on whose feast day the battle was won - St Lawrence. He built his first castle near the harbour and the St. Lawrence link remains even today, see Earl of Howth. The original title of Baron of Howth was granted to Almeric St. Lawrence by Henry II of England in 1181, for one knight's fee.

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