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"A little piece of history"

Welcome to Lamb Doyles, an establishment which has a long and colourful history with its connections with Horse Racing at nearby Leopardstown Race Course, and as a famous gathering place for Dubliners and tourists who appreciate the magnificent views over Dublin City and Bay.

The nearby granite quarries of Barnaculla have given employment for hundreds of years and are still worked today. The men would bring by cart, a load of granite to the city of Dublin for which they would receive three shillings. Upon their return they would meet their wives and shop in Dundrum and enjoy refreshments at Lamb Doyles. Local families including Fennells, Byrnes and Doyles (dark haired strangers) originated from Denmark. To distinguish families different nicknames were used including Drummer Doyle, Dancer Doyle, Daddy Doyle, Dooce Doyle, Spiro Doyle, Tosser Doyle and Lamb Doyle. The last named is the most famous. He had married for a second time and his new wife when asked how they were getting on replied " quiet as a lamb." His grave is in Kilgobbin Cemetery.

"Then and Now"

'The view from the Lamb Doyle's pub on a Summer's morning as you sit in the shade on a bench outside the house and look back over the bay with Dublin on the left and Howth, Ireland's Eye and Lambay behind, on the right, Kingstown, Dalkey and Bray Head, all of them in the blaze of the midday sun! The sweet smell of the country in your nostrils, a cigarette in your mouth, and your glass behind you. Truly you could feel life in all its' glory'. So wrote William Orpen, the painter, describing a visit to Lamb Doyles pub - 'That wonderful inn on the hills' as he called it -with his friend Oliver St. John Gogarty about 1911.
Lamb Doyles was a favourite pub of Dr. Gogarty's. Often after a busy morning removing tonsils in the Meath Hospital he would drive out to have a quiet drink before returning for duty.
Lamb Doyles pub at that time, and indeed for the next 40 or 50 years was a simple place. The bar was also the local grocery shop. The floor was covered with sawdust and in winter there was a blazing fire of gorse. Behind the main bar was the snug, panelled in dark wood. Lamb Doyles was so named after the owner, remembered still by some local people as the man with the flowing white beard, 'near to his toes' The 'Lamb' was a nickname to distinguish him from the many other Doyles in the area

He and his wife Lizzie lived at the cross roads, now known as Lamb's Cross, and their sons and daughters worked in the pub up the road. Mrs Rose Doyle of Sandyford, now in her eighties, married the Lamb's son Joseph in 1923. He worked as a doorman at the pub while his brother Pat looked after the bar. 'Them were the days' says Rose, 'You wouldn't get through the door on a Saturday night with the crowds coming out from Dublin' At weekends parties drove out from the city in horse drawn traps, sidecars and charabancs, to enjoy the mountain scenery and make use of the bonafide facilities. On a Sunday night a plate of well salted corned beef was available - free of charge - to the customers to encourage their thirst. The price of the pint at that time was 2 pence.

Rose remembers her father-in-law as an old man in his swallow tailed coat and gold watch chain, and of course his long beard, walking up the Black Glen Road every morning and having a pint in his pub and walking back by the Slate Cabin Lane in time for his dinner. He had a great liking for liquorice and used to give pennies to the Tobin children who came to school in Sandyford from the Balally cottages, to bring him sweets from the pub. Not far from the pub was the tin roofed tea room known as 'Biddy O'Gormans' The Lamb's daughter Brigid would stand at the door with a bowl in her hand to collect the shillings from the customers - the price of a pot of tea,and home made cakes and dancing for the night! Rose helped her sister-in-law by making the tea in the shed at the back. Often the customers brought their own music - violins, accordions and so on.

During the 20's and 30's many Dubliners built themselves wooden huts at the foot of the Dublin mountains and came out at the weekends. They also enjoyed visiting Lamb Doyles or Biddy O'Gorman's. During the 30's an event occurred that caused quite a sensation. A woman called Lily O'Neill, or 'Honor Bright' was brought one evening to Lamb Doyles by two young men who had met her on St. Stephen's Green. Later her dead body was found on the road not far away. The case came to court but the results were inconclusive. The story goes that her ghost may occasionally be seen in the area.

Another of Lamb Doyle's daughters, Catherine, married Alex Field, and their son Jim ran the pub in the late 30's and 40's. Jim served in the bar wearing his hard hat. When asked by a customer for a pennyworth of broken biscuits, he replied that he had been too busy to break any that day. He was reputed to walk to Dundrum to save the 4d bus fare. His sister Daisy McGuirk and her husband set up a little butcher's shop beside the pub where corned beef was kept in barrels of brine and for a while Jim had a petrol pump nearby. It is said that he had to be dissuaded from putting up two concrete blocks, one to sit on and one to put a can of petrol on, as he saw no need to erect a pump!

The pub was bought by Reg. Armstrong, the motor bike importer and rally driver, in the 60's. It was completely rebuilt and enlarged to it's present appearance, and a large car park was laid out on the field where the horses had been tethered in the old days.

After passing through several owners Lamb Doyle's is still going strong under the present owner. Despite the rapidly extending housing estates and the increasing sprawl of Dublin it is still possible from the upper floor to enjoy that view from Lambay to Bray Head, and the gorse is still growing on the hillside behind.