Rathfarnham
human settlement
Rathfarnham (Irish: Ráth Fearnáin, meaning 'Fearnán's ringfort') is a southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland in County Dublin. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is between the local government areas of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown and South Dublin.
Located within the historical baronies of Rathdown and Uppercross, Rathfarnham village originally developed around a fortification overlooking a ford on the River Dodder. From the medieval period, Rathfarnham was on the perimeter of the Pale (the area of Anglo-Norman influence in Ireland, centred on Dublin), and a number of defensive structures were built in the area. Rathfarnham Castle, a fortified house, was built in the late 16th century. Developed around these structures, by the 19th century there were a number of mills operating in the area, and Rathfarnham was still somewhat rural by the early 20th century. During the 20th century, with the expansion of metropolitan Dublin, Rathfarnham became a largely residential suburban area.
The population of all electoral divisions labelled as Rathfarnham was 23,276 as of the 2022 census.
Location
Rathfarnham is a civil parish in the historical baronies of Rathdown and Uppercross.
The public source identifies “Rathfarnham” as human settlement. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Rathfarnham, human and settlement.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1317787. VIAF identifies the subject as 128309780. The Library of Congress control number is nr2005011983. Authority coordinates are 53.299, -6.285. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2022.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rathfarnham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.