placenamesWindy Arbour
Na Glasáin
A former silk-working village grew beside a hospital whose large enclosed grounds shaped this part of the Dundrum Road.
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 Glasáin · Irish · main form · validated name
- Windy Arbour · English · main form
- Windy Harbour · English · main form · historical name
Place & story
Windy Harbour and the silk industry
Weston St John Joyce described Windy Harbour as a dispersed village reached after crossing the Dodder at Milltown. He recorded that its inhabitants had formerly worked extensively in the silk industry. His account places the settlement between the river crossings and Dundrum, with the large walled hospital grounds beside the road. It preserves a view of the locality before its absorption into Dublin’s suburban landscape. [2]
The hospital beside the village
The hospital opened in 1850 under the name Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum, later becoming the Central Mental Hospital. It provided specialist treatment for people involved with the criminal justice system. The institution occupied a substantial enclosed site beside the village; the Land Development Agency records the property as 11.3 hectares. Its walls and buildings therefore marked a considerable area along the Dundrum Road for generations. [3]
Planning a different use for the grounds
Following the decision to move hospital services to Portrane, the government made the site available for housing redevelopment. The Land Development Agency’s consultation began in autumn 2020 and informed a masterplan proposing homes, public green space and community facilities. It also envisaged adapting the existing hospital buildings and opening pedestrian connections through the grounds. These were redevelopment proposals, rather than descriptions of a completed new neighbourhood. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Dublin
- Barony
- Rathdown
- Civil parish
- Taney
- Within
- Farranboley
- Coordinates
- 53.29838, -6.24493 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 127120 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Windy Arbour. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- The Neighbourhood of Dublin: Ranelagh,Dundrum,Enniskerry,the Scalp · Weston St John Joyce
- Land Development Agency to submit application for977new homes in Dundrum · Land Development Agency
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2024-06-28. How this page was prepared.