The Sidella Lane, Ardee Road, Dundalk
You are welcome to join us for our Heritage Week Event - A walk along Dundalk's Sidella Lane.
20th August 2026 @ 6:30pm leaving from Brookville Service Station
Full details, please see
For additional details of directions, see:
Brookville Service Station
Across the road is the entrance to Ardee Terrace and Brook Street and the site of the GNR Works and the Macardle Moore Brewery. This could be another walk but we will see the Chimney and Brewary along our Sidella Walk.
The townlands visited during our walk are Cambrickville, Fairhill, Ballybarrack, Rath and Killally.
For anyone interested in a preview, there is a YouTube video (19 minutes) about the Sidella and adjoining points of interest shown on the following map
The points of interest along our walk will include:
1. The G.N.R. works and Macardle Moore Brewery (Cambrickville)
Macardle Moore & Co. was a historic landmark brewery founded in Dundalk in 1863 by Edward Henry Macardle and Andrew Thomas Moore at Cambrickville, Ardee Road. Famous for Macardle's Traditional Ale, the brewery joined the Guinness empire in the 1960s before ceasing operations in 2001.
Take a walk around Brook Street and at the inner end you come across the buildings of the GNR works, outside there are several informative panels.
2. The entrance gate to St Margaret's House
Detached single-storey house, built c. 1880. Pitched and hipped slate roofs with decorative eaves course. Red brick walls. Timber casement windows. Timber glazed door with elaborate door surround.
From Peter Kavanagh in The Democrat
Where is 'St Margaret's House'?
This is the large Victorian mansion in the townland of Cambrickville, off the Ardee Road, the home of Edward Henry Macardle who, with is his cousin, Andrew T. Moore, Dublin, founded the Macardle, Moore Brewery company in 1863.
The house was purchased by Guinness (Ireland) Ltd., in 1959 when they bought the Great Northern Brewery, at Carrick Road. It was the home of Dr. Hermann Meunder, Mastwr Brewer, who established the Harp Lager Brewery.
3. The Brewery Pass
The Brewery Pass is a roadway that runs along the boundary of the Brewery. Now local farmers access their lands via the pass.
4. Brookville Cottage
Brookville Cottage was probably related to the G.N.R. works. Brookville House and Brooklyn House were semidetached manager's houses from the GNR inside Brook Street.
5. The entrance gate to Brookfield House
Brookfield House was built by Charles MacMahon (d. 1885) who was married to Alice Gartlan, son of Charles MacMahon,
see:
Photo & Details of the House:
The wall is built in the style of the old Louth fence.
6. The Old Fever Hospital (now St John of God Campus)
During the famine era, a fever hospital was erected at the east of the site of the workhouse.
7. The Site of Dundalk Workhouse
A garden-type summer house feature that still remains on the site.
8. The Plaque erected by Old Dundalk Society in 1983
The famine graveyard within the walls (of the Workhouse) in course became used as a garden and its original function overlooked. On the 20 March 1984 a plaque erected on the west boundary wall by the Old Dundalk Society was unveiled by His Eminence Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich; and those buried there are commemorated by its inscription:
9. Rath Cottage
Rath Cottage was lived in by the Russell family from late 1800s. William Russell of Downpatrick married in 1877 Alice MacMahon of Brookfield House. Their son Charles Russell married in 1901 Alice Mulholland. Their son Brendan Russell married in 1935 Constance Bellingham, daughter of Roger Bellingham (Baronet). The Russell family lived there in 1926. Members of the Russell family still reside in other parts of the county.
10. The Sidella Lane
What is this?
11. St Clare's Well
Definitely a well or spring there, fresh water present at the peak of the summer.
Entrance off the Sidella Lane marked by this plank close to a stream further on and quite near Killally Graveyard.
St Clare's Well is at the base of the tree
The article from Larry Conlon's 1999 article (CLAHJ) contains:
Fieldnames map by Noel Sharkey showing the location of St Clare's Well relative to the graveyard at Killally.
Fieldnames map by Noel Sharkey showing the townlands of Fairhill and Priorland.
12. The Post-Famine Graveyard (from 1853 to 1905) at Killally
Some of this information has been taken from Dundalk South West Local Area Plan
The article in Tempest's Annual (1968) entitled
'The Listener' by Artie Curran,
has a mention of the Sidella.
The article recalls Artie (the 'I') and his friend Tom, who met an older man called Paddy who conversed on the various sites around Dundalk.
