The claim
On Abbey Street in the fishing village of Howth, the Abbey Tavern presents itself as a sixteenth-century house with original stone walls, flagged floors and turf fires. Ireland's national architectural survey dates the building to about 1850. It is best known for long-running traditional music and dance shows served with dinner, and remains a Howth landmark whatever age the walls turn out to be.
What the records show
The tavern markets itself as a 16th-century building but gives no licensing history or survey evidence; when it first became a drinking house is unknown. The claim names a century and no year, so the ranking sorts it from the century's first year. The building half of the claim now has an answer. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, read through its open data on 17 September 2026, carries record 11359015 under the name The Abbey Tavern at 29 Abbey Street, mapped within a few metres of the house. It describes an attached three-bay two-storey commercial building of about 1850: rendered walls with quoins and a string course, a dentil cornice beneath a parapet, square-headed and segmental-arched windows in moulded plaster surrounds, and a round-headed doorcase with fluted pilasters and a plain fanlight. The survey gives the date range as 1840 to 1860 and the original use as a house. That is a Victorian building, three hundred years after the claim, and the inventory records nothing older on the site.
What to look for inside
- Long-running traditional Irish music and dance dinner shows
- Original stone walls, flagged floors and turf fires
Visiting
Abbey Tavern is in Howth, Ireland, at 28 Abbey Street, Howth, Co. Dublin. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- www.abbeytavern.ie/
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pubs_in_Dublin
- services-eu1.arcgis.com/HyjXgkV6KGMSF3jt/arcgis/rest/services/NIAHBuildingsOpenData/FeatureServer/0/query?where=REG_NO%3D11359015&outFields=REG_NO%2CNAME%2CNUMBER%2CSTREET1%2CTOWN%2CORIGINAL_TYPE%2CDATEFROM%2CDATETO%2CRATING%2CDESCRIPTION&returnGeometry=false&f=html
- www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/information-about-revenue/statistics/excise/licences/liquor-licences.aspx
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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