placenamesGreenhills
Na Glaschnoic
Greenhills’ changing landscape links the remains of an esker with archaeological discoveries and a striking twentieth-century church.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Na Glaschnoic · Irish · main form · validated name
- Greenhills · English · main form
Place & story
The hills left by retreating ice
The Greenhills Esker formed from sand and gravel deposited beneath and beside an ice sheet retreating across south Dublin. Much was later quarried away. Geological Survey Ireland identifies surviving ridges near Tymon Lane and the M50, including sections in Tymon Park. Its report connects the area's name with these former sand hills and explains how their alignment preserves evidence of the direction of ice movement. [2]
Burials exposed by quarrying
Sand digging at Greenhills uncovered prehistoric burials during the 1890s. South Dublin Libraries recounts an 1898 discovery reported to museum director G. T. Plunkett: vessels, bone and a stone-lined burial chamber. A photographer recorded the chamber before it was enclosed in timber and transported intact to the museum. The episode shows both the destruction caused by quarrying and an early effort to preserve a burial's arrangement rather than collect pottery alone. [3]
A copper roof and modern glass
The Church of the Holy Spirit was built in 1968–71 to designs by Louis Peppard and Hugo Duffy. Its trapezoidal plan and seven overlapping copper-clad roof sections depart from the familiar nave-and-tower church. Slender glazed gaps admit light between the roof sections, with stained glass by Richard Joseph King. A separate campanile and granite walls make the building a distinctive landmark among the surrounding low-rise houses. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Greenhills. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Greenhills Esker: County Geological Site Report SD 005 · Geological Survey Ireland
- Nineteenth-century Bronze Age finds at Greenhills · Colette Allen, South Dublin Libraries
- Church of the Holy Spirit: NIAH 11210004 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-02-17. How this page was prepared.