1011787 Salmon Leap

This pub is in Dublin. Just. And Revenue think its in Kildare!

Sitting on a bend in the road just after you cross the Liffey, and hence the county boundary, leaving Leixlip village, the Salmon Leap could pass for a rural roadhouse if looked at in isolation. However, as it sits on the old N4, usually clogged with traffic; and in the shadow of the main drinking water treatment plant for much of the Northside, the idyll you may have constructed in your mind is quickly shattered.

That doesn't mean its not a nice pub, though. There's multiple sections to it, including a fairly small bar and a sort-of-snug-with-windows that is decorated with local sporting memorabilia. That local happens to include a few International grade players has helped, as there are Trevor Brennan and Emma Byrne shirts and so on up on the walls and ceiling.

This is the nearest of the Dublin pubs to my house, however I'd never actually been to it before. I've never really gone drinking in Leixlip - Maynooth and occasionally Celbridge being my normal places before, so I had only been the hotels for various events (two of those hotels are also in Dublin, as it happens).

Additionally, the pub was closed for quite some time. It shut in 2011 due to the prevailing economic conditions at the time, and was then significantly damaged in a serial arson attack in 2012 before reopening, fully restored, a few years ago. Its easily accessible from Dublin the 66 bus, and is relatively cheap for a Dublin pub, so is worth the visit.