Moving to Dundalk March 2008

Imported but

Hiya,

I'm looking for some advice on where to rent in Dundalk. Great news is that my family and I are moving up when our current lease ends in mid March - getting out of south-west Dublin at last (big yays).

What we're looking for:
We are hoping to find somewhere with at least 2 bedrooms. within 10 minutes easy walk to the Grammar School in the Vincent Ave area. I'll be commuting to Dublin by train each day but I don't mind a slightly longer walk to the train station. We've got two cats and one car, so a house with a garden out back and parking out front would be ideal whereas most apartments would be no good for us. We'd like to avoid being on a busy road (for the sake of the cats and the kid). We'll need to be able to get broadband at the house for my wife's work. We're not into the pub scene any more (children will do that to you), but would like somewhere with friendly neighbours and perhaps a few other families.

Our searching so far has been limited to looking on Daft, and looking through the Argus and Democrat, plus a bit of driving 'round and walking 'round the town. (Sorry if some Dub-rego Fiat has been causing havoc on your streets, the driver was probably lost and/or confused, by the way!) We nearly got a look in at a place in Parnell Park which was promising but turned out to be unavailable until April/May.

What is it like living in the following 10 areas that are in the vicinity?
1. Nicholas St, St Mary's Rd, Mary St N, Castle Road etc.
2. The Laurels, the Long Walk, Park View, Park Villas etc.
3. Anne Street, Thomas Street, Dublin Street area
4. Off Dominic's Place e.g St Malachy's Villas, Demesne Tce, MacEntee Ave
5. Other places further along the Carrickmacross Rod (is Lis Na Dara along there?)
6. Ardee Terrace and other streets off the Ardee Road
7. Parnell Park
8. Hill Street / Line Terrace / Gosling's Terrace / Hughes Park
9. Ashbrook, Greenacres and the west end of Avenue Road
10. Down the Dublin Road (about as far as Priorland)

One further question: we've seen a few places offering Cable TV. Who is the provider in Dundalk?

Any help most appreciated.

indiewindy

Imported but wrote: »

Hiya,

I'm looking for some advice on where to rent in Dundalk. Great news is that my family and I are moving up when our current lease ends in mid March - getting out of south-west Dublin at last (big yays).

What we're looking for:
We are hoping to find somewhere with at least 2 bedrooms. within 10 minutes easy walk to the Grammar School in the Vincent Ave area. I'll be commuting to Dublin by train each day but I don't mind a slightly longer walk to the train station. We've got two cats and one car, so a house with a garden out back and parking out front would be ideal whereas most apartments would be no good for us. We'd like to avoid being on a busy road (for the sake of the cats and the kid). We'll need to be able to get broadband at the house for my wife's work. We're not into the pub scene any more (children will do that to you), but would like somewhere with friendly neighbours and perhaps a few other families.

Our searching so far has been limited to looking on Daft, and looking through the Argus and Democrat, plus a bit of driving 'round and walking 'round the town. (Sorry if some Dub-rego Fiat has been causing havoc on your streets, the driver was probably lost and/or confused, by the way!) We nearly got a look in at a place in Parnell Park which was promising but turned out to be unavailable until April/May.

What is it like living in the following 10 areas that are in the vicinity?
1. Nicholas St, St Mary's Rd, Mary St N, Castle Road etc. Too far to walk
2. The Laurels, the Long Walk, Park View, Park Villas etc. 15 min walk
3. Anne Street, Thomas Street, Dublin Street area very handy,
4. Off Dominic's Place e.g St Malachy's Villas, Demesne Tce, MacEntee Ave very handy if you get somewhere here
5. Other places further along the Carrickmacross Rod (is Lis Na Dara along there?) lisnadara is there allright, a few minutes walk to the station
6. Ardee Terrace and other streets off the Ardee Road Ok
7. Parnell Park Close nice quiet part of town
8. Hill Street / Line Terrace / Gosling's Terrace / Hughes Park Goslings terrace not too safe fro kids with a river just behind it
9. Ashbrook, Greenacres and the west end of Avenue Road ok
10. Down the Dublin Road (about as far as Priorland) great area

One further question: we've seen a few places offering Cable TV. Who is the provider in Dundalk? Don't know if its still available



Any help most appreciated.

You could also try willowgrove off the Carrick road, a nice quiet estate
Good luck:)

Cionnaith

1. Nicholas St, St Mary's Rd, Mary St N, Castle Road etc.

i've just moved from the carricks road (slowest worst road in louth duriong mornigng rush hour) to seatown area (road over from mary st north(which has fierce traffic) and it's great though there's been some break ins recently on elderly residents, you can get that anywhre.

most any of those places you mentioned would be fine and are central. personally i wouldnt be keen on dublin road.

daft.ie should show you right.

yours

unhelpful

bettedavis

if you could get one available in Mulholland ave that would fit all your needs. seconds walk to town centre yet accessible via a shortcut along friary primary school to garda barracks. same distance from train station as to grammer. car parking outside. terraced three bed houses and very solid. enclosed back gardens. don't know if any avail for rent. i know there was one rental that is now vacant and for sale for a long time, maybe if you rang the auctioneer , the owner would consider rental again. (have no vested interest, but my aunt lives on the street and i have to say if i could have bought a house there, i would have) P.s. she has a few cats and due to being enclosed, they get nowhere near the road.

Imported but

Most helpful, thank you. Luckily we've no intention of driving anywhere in the mornings, so we won't be making Dundalk's traffic any worse:D
Was this your first post? I'm honoured.

Cionnaith wrote: »

...
yours
unhelpful

misslt

If you're not driving in the mornings then it kinda rules out the Carrick rd as its a spin..not a long one, but a spin anyway.

Same goes for Dublin road, I liked it better than Carrick rd tho, although town is less accessible from there.

St Nicholas St/Anne St is nice too, its pretty central and its quiet.

Avenue road is also pretty central to town, although I think Nicholas St direction would be your best bet for walking to school etc.

Broadband shouldn't be a problem - take a look at the broadband forum here.

Hmm...also pretty unhelpful looking back at what I've written!

Imported but

We haven't had time for much walking around in the town, and haven't been there in the mornings so it's good to know these things. Thanks. I'll check out the broadband forum as it relates to Dundalk. Can you tell me who supplies the cable TV service in the town?

misslt wrote: »

...Broadband shouldn't be a problem - take a look at the broadband forum here.

Hmm...also pretty unhelpful looking back at what I've written!

Mr Magnolia

Imported but wrote: »

What is it like living in the following 10 areas that are in the vicinity?
1. Nicholas St, St Mary's Rd, Mary St N, Castle Road etc.
2. The Laurels, the Long Walk, Park View, Park Villas etc.
3. Anne Street, Thomas Street, Dublin Street area
4. Off Dominic's Place e.g St Malachy's Villas, Demesne Tce, MacEntee Ave
5. Other places further along the Carrickmacross Rod (is Lis Na Dara along there?)
6. Ardee Terrace and other streets off the Ardee Road
7. Parnell Park
8. Hill Street / Line Terrace / Gosling's Terrace / Hughes Park
9. Ashbrook, Greenacres and the west end of Avenue Road
10. Down the Dublin Road (about as far as Priorland)

It all just depends on what you need regarding garden, location, proximity to the school, train station etc.

If you choose a house in some of the town centre's streets (Anne St., Hill St., Mary St.,) you may be forsaking your garden, this will vary from house to house but generally speaking a terrace home may not have much out the back. Lis Na Dara is out the carrick road past the train station. It's a brand new estate so the houses and furnishings should all be in great order, I'd recommend you taking a look there first.

One further question: we've seen a few places offering Cable TV. Who is the provider in Dundalk?

I'd recommend Sky tbh. Not sure who offers cable around the town.

lucernarian

An aerial pointed towards Belfast would get better service for the UK channels than UPC MMDS. There are no proper cable networks that I know of in Dundalk, save for pixelated UPC "cable".

misslt

Imported but wrote: »

We haven't had time for much walking around in the town, and haven't been there in the mornings so it's good to know these things. Thanks. I'll check out the broadband forum as it relates to Dundalk. Can you tell me who supplies the cable TV service in the town?

Don't know tbh - but would also recommend Sky as your best bet!

Imported but

We're going to take a look at about 5 properties tomorrow afternoon. Thank you all for your help. My interest in the cable is that, at the moment, we have NTL cable (owned by UPC) and through that we get our phone and broadband as well as digital TV... which works out to be a reasonable deal. I myself don't watch a lot of telly:o

Cionnaith

what sort of a budget are looking at? it's a good time to buy.

dont know about cable, irish channels do me for now. broadband is fine in town. i know my neighbour's unsecured network is pretty good anyways.

unless you end up out one of the estates out of town which you dont want, right now you should be able to get sorted in around centrally.

misslt

Imported but wrote: »

We're going to take a look at about 5 properties tomorrow afternoon. Thank you all for your help. My interest in the cable is that, at the moment, we have NTL cable (owned by UPC) and through that we get our phone and broadband as well as digital TV... which works out to be a reasonable deal. I myself don't watch a lot of telly:o

Hope it went well for you!

Waitsian

misslt wrote: »

If you're not driving in the mornings then it kinda rules out the Carrick rd as its a spin..not a long one, but a spin anyway.

Same goes for Dublin road, I liked it better than Carrick rd tho, although town is less accessible from there.

St Nicholas St/Anne St is nice too, its pretty central and its quiet.

Avenue road is also pretty central to town, although I think Nicholas St direction would be your best bet for walking to school etc.

Broadband shouldn't be a problem - take a look at the broadband forum here.

Hmm...also pretty unhelpful looking back at what I've written!

Stapleton Place is the best street in Dundalk - and when the bridge goes and they extend the road under where it will have once stood, it'll be even better!

ibh

Any feedback on the properties that you were going to view OP???

All pretty good areas that you suggested tbh.

Imported but

Yes I can offer the following good news: we've agreed to rent a place on the Carrickmacross Road, just along from Lis Na Dara in the direction of the train station.

We looked at a house in Ashbrook which was decent enough, and sitting on the edge of the green area there, but we liked the other place much more. Secondly, there didn't seem to be any pedestrian crossing across Hill St at the Avenue Road junction, which I think will be busy enough at 8:30am on a weekday. Also, having lived the last couple of years in an estate we wanted a change.

There was a charming little 2-bed terrace house on Demense Terrace (right beside the train station) and it would have been a bargain too, but no space for any guests if they came to stay.

We saw the place that is for sale on Mulholland Ave (advertised mis-spelt as Mullholland) but it was at the north end of the street and we thought there may have been a bit too much nightlife going on for our tastes. Besides, it was definitely not for rent at this point in time.

Everything else we'd been considering seemed too far away from the school, or had no parking at all. The agents we spoke to were all very keen to help, by the way. I guess that's normal in Dundalk, people are generally helpful.;)
So we are sorted for a house I think. The next thing we need to arrange is the phone and internet - we were thinking we might try and get these through Digiweb. Does anyone in Dundalk use Digiweb for these services? Of course Eircom would be an option as well, but they are much dearer.

Thanks again for everyone's advice. We're really looking forward to moving up in a few weeks.

eamoss

1st off the Grammar is the great school, I did my LC there in 2006 had a great 6 years there.

Imported but wrote: »

we've agreed to rent a place on the Carrickmacross Road, just along from Lis Na Dara in the direction of the train station.

In the next few years there will be alot of work going on behind you. Have a look at this. More detail here

Imported but wrote: »

Secondly, there didn't seem to be any pedestrian crossing across Hill St at the Avenue Road junction, which I think will be busy enough at 8:30am on a weekday.

Its so busy that its very easy to walk across

In the next year or two they are going to take down the Hill St bridge there is going to be a roundabout there which will link up with the road there beside Lidl and the new roundabout they are building ATM beside Xerox. Here are two maps map1 and map2

Imported but wrote: »

The agents we spoke to were all very keen to help, by the way. I guess that's normal in Dundalk, people are generally helpful.;)

Meh it was more like they wanted your money.

Imported but wrote: »

The next thing we need to arrange is the phone and internet - we were thinking we might try and get these through Digiweb. Does anyone in Dundalk use Digiweb for these services? Of course Eircom would be an option as well, but they are much dearer.

Digiweb is a Dundalk company, so there is alot of people around the town who use it. But not sure about for a phone line. Most people I know how have it live in the bog land of no where.

Most people are with eircom around Dundalk, my parents are with BT and they work out cheap enough I think.

Imported but

eamoss wrote: »

....In the next few years there will be alot of work going on behind you. Have a look at this. More detail here
....In the next year or two they are going to take down the Hill St bridge there is going to be a roundabout there which will link up with the road there beside Lidl and the new roundabout they are building ATM beside Xerox. Here are two maps map1 and map2
....Digiweb is a Dundalk company, so there is alot of people around the town who use it. But not sure about for a phone line. Most people I know how have it live in the bog land of no where.
Most people are with eircom around Dundalk, my parents are with BT and they work out cheap enough I think.

Thanks for the links and the suggestion - and I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the Grammar School, because our daughter's going to be there for the next 10 years(!)
Because we're renting, setting up the Digiweb might be a hassle. We only plan on renting for one year but I guess we'll see some sign of the west-side development above. Thanks again for your help.

Bard

also, for broadband you might consider www.net1.ie

I'm with them and the service is v. good - might take a while to get connected with them though

Padna

I'm in a rented house in Dundalk and use Digiweb for phone and broadband. I organised the installation myself - the landlord didn't mind.

It's very good value. 25 euro a month for phone rental & broadband combined. Just have to pay extra for phone calls. Might not be such a good deal if you make a lot of phone calls.

You need a direct line of sight to their local transmitter - I think it's on the hill at Castletown.

DamoDLK

I know that there is no cable provider in Dundalk per se, for eg: Down here in Cork, there is ntl/chorus which provides basic service to houses. This isn't available in Dundalk anymore - there used to be Irish Multi channel (which is similar to cable). My mother got in Free iew for €250 (once off) installed and all. (-the box is available in Watters culloville) You don't get the best of channels but it costs nothing! Happy Days.
Welcome to da town!!:cool:

ibh

DamoDLK wrote: »

I know that there is no cable provider in Dundalk per se, for eg: Down here in Cork, there is ntl/chorus which provides basic service to houses. This isn't available in Dundalk anymore - there used to be Irish Multi channel (which is similar to cable). My mother got in Free iew for €250 (once off) installed and all. (-the box is available in Watters culloville) You don't get the best of channels but it costs nothing! Happy Days.
Welcome to da town!!:cool:

Got Freeview in Argos in Newry last week and it was only £25stg one off fee. Brilliant value even though some of the channels are pretty average.
Were getting the broadband in this week but it's been arranged by the breadknife.

DamoDLK

ibh wrote: »

Got Freeview in Argos in Newry last week and it was only £25stg one off fee. Brilliant value even though some of the channels are pretty average.
Were getting the broadband in this week but it's been arranged by the breadknife.

25 Quid are you serious???? We got friggin ripped well off in that case!?!:mad:

ibh

DamoDLK wrote: »

25 Quid are you serious???? We got friggin ripped well off in that case!?!:mad:

Yea, there was a cheaper one for about £16 but the one i got was low-energy and had a scart with it. Gives channels like 5US and some music channels and stuff like that. I work in the North and the guys at work put me onto it..

indiewindy

ibh wrote: »

Yea, there was a cheaper one for about £16 but the one i got was low-energy and had a scart with it. Gives channels like 5US and some music channels and stuff like that. I work in the North and the guys at work put me onto it..

Are you getting it through a satellite dish

Alt-Health-Ire

You just plug in your TV ariel and it picks up all the free to air channels - good reception in dundalk as its so close to NI - you pick up all the UK channels and we get a rather strange german music station too!