Stillorgan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stillorgan Shopping Centre

Stillorgan (Tigh Lorcáin in Irish), formerly a town in its own right, is an area of Dublin city in Ireland, in the County of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown. It was named after an old chieftan called Lorcan, what may have been his burial chamber was found in the area in 1716. 1 The area is now part of the conurbation that is Greater Dublin, and is home to many housing estates, shops and other facilities.

The first shopping centre to be built in Ireland opened in Stillorgan in 1966 2. To enable the construction of the centre, many of the original early 19th century cottages had to be knocked down. They used to run from Oatlands College right down to the end of the Dublin Road.

The N11 road leads out from the city, through Stillorgan towards Bray. It has bypassed the village centre since the mid 1970s when the Stillorgan Bypass was opened to the east. The N11 hosts the 'Stillorgan Quality Bus Corridor' (QBC) which runs along the N11 in both directions from St Stephens Green to Foxrock. Stillorgan is a major bus interchange and the Stillorgan QBC is the most heavily used in Ireland, featuring the busiest and most frequent bus route, the 46A.

The campus of University College Dublin is only slightly further in towards the city centre. The present St. Brigid's Church of Ireland was built in 1706 on the site of an earlier church, thought to have been connected to St. Brigid's Monastery in Kildare.

One of the most prominent architectural features is the large 18th century obelisk designed by Edward Lovett Pearce for the second Viscount Allen. Pearse resided in Stillorgan in a house known as The Grove, which was demolished to make way for Stillorgan Bowl (now LeisurePlex). The famous artist William Orpen grew up in a house called 'Oriel' on Grove Avenue in Stillorgan.

A large open reservoir which is called Stillorgan reservoir is situated near the Sandyford Industrial Estate. The water is piped from the Vartry Reservoir near Roundwood in County Wicklow.

Stillorgan is also home to the famous Kilmacud Crokes G.A.A. club whose clubhouse, Glenalbyn is located directly opposite the shopping centre. Stillorgan's oldest pub is Bolands on the Hill.

The suburb had a population of 15,894 in the 2006 census.