Fingal events taking centre stage at Open House Dublin festival, 11-19th October

Fingal County Council is delighted to continue its support for the Open House Dublin festival taking place 11th-19th October. Tours of flagship buildings along with happenings for children and families are among the free events showcasing Fingal’s rich heritage, architecture and public realm as part of the Irish Architecture Foundation’s flagship Open House Dublin.

Celebrating its 20th year, this year’s Open House Dublin theme is ‘Future Heritage’, with more than 200 free events on the line-up across Dublin city and county, including the following highlights in Fingal:

New Fingal Building Tours

Festival-goers can go inside two newly completed buildings in Fingal as part of this year’s programme as follows:

• Tours of the new Baldoyle Racecourse Community Centre, which features a circular plan with a sports hall at its core and a necklace of community focused amenity spaces under a curved green roof. The design team was led by Henchion Reuter Architects for Fingal County Council.
• Tours of Skerries Library, redeveloped by Fingal Co Co Architects to provide a large contemporary three-storey light-filled extension. The original Carnegie Library has been carefully conserved and upgraded within the overall redevelopment.

Fingal Favourites

Further festival highlights taking place in Fingal include:

• Tours of Skerries Mills heritage museum ─ the only site in Europe with a collection of three mills and a bakery.
• Tours of Lusk Community Cultural Centre offering a chance to learn about the cottage’s remarkable transformation from dereliction to a vibrant civic hub plus a first look at phase two plans that include a dedicated theatre space.
• Tours of Glin Court in Priorswood, designed by Paul Keogh Architects, a 32-unit Dublin City Council older persons’ housing development.
• Tours of a contemporary family home on St Lawrence O’Toole Avenue, Portmarnock by Robert Burke Architects, taking in a compact two-storey extension conceived for a growing household.
• A Georgian mansion tour of Newbridge House, Donabate, owned by Fingal Co Council for the benefit of the public, and the only surviving intact 18th-century demesne in Dublin.
• A chance to see an important collection of artworks on loan from the National Gallery of Ireland during tours of Malahide Castle and to view the conservation works in its Great Hall, the historic building’s finest room.
• Tours of Argillan Castle, a spectacular early-18th century residence with castellated embellishments, owned by Fingal Co Council for the benefit of the public,  located in a magnificent coastal setting.
• Tours of the award-winning Lark Theatre, Irish Institute of Music and Song in Balbriggan, taking in protected Georgian Bedford house next door, that provides accommodation for visiting artists and scholars.

Highlights for Children and Families

Open House Dublin kicks off with a Junior programme of free events on 11th and 12th October, including highlights for children and families in Fingal as follows:

• Interactive workshops led by children’s author and illustrator Margaret Anne Suggs at Baldoyle Library and Chapel Green, where children will get the chance to create their own paper bird house based on their idea of home.
• Fingal Future Visions Display in Malahide Library, a time capsule art project curated by much-loved children’s author and illustrator Chris Judge and created by schoolchildren from across Fingal.

Welcoming the Open House Dublin events in Fingal, County Architect, Fingal County Council, Fionnuala May said: “Fingal County Council is delighted to be part of the Open House 2025 programme again this year, both as sponsors and organisers of building visits. This year, along with historic properties such as Malahide Castle and Newbridge House that have been part of the programme in the past, we are delighted to introduce to the public two new buildings just completed ─ Baldoyle Community Centre by Henchion Reuter and Skerries Library by Fingal Architects Department.”

IAF Director Emmett Scanlon said: “This year's Open House theme, Future Heritage, is our loud, collective call to rethink how we value and care for our heritage, our future and our role within it. We invite communities from Fingal and across Dublin to get involved and participate this year, as from O’Connell Street to the coast, and for the twentieth year running, we reveal the value and impact excellent architecture and design have on all of our lives.”

All Open House Dublin events are free. Pre-booking is required for many of the events. Pre-booking for ticketed events is now live on www.OpenHouseDublin.com.