Suburban villages with extensive housing include Baldoyle, Castleknock, Howth (and Sutton), Lusk, Donabate,Portmarnock, Skerries.

The motto of the arms of Fingal reads Irish: Flúirse Talaimh is Mara meaning "Abundance of Land and Sea".

Fingal varies enormously in character, from densely populated suburban areas of the contiguous Dublin metropolitan region to remote rural villages and small, unpopulated agricultural townlands.

In later centuries the territory north of the river Liffey[citation needed] was known as Mide or Midhe, i.e. "the Kingdom of Meath" (that to the south was known as Coigh Cuolan or Cualan).

The west of this area was known as Teffia, and the east as Bregia (Latinised from Gaelic Magh Breagh, "the great plain of Meath").

It was so established by the 11th century that it was regarded even amongst the surrounding native Gaelic population as a minor kingdom[11] ruled by Hiberno-Norse kings.

The Norse Kingdom of Dublin stretched, at its greatest, from Drogheda to Arklow, and while mostly a thin strip of coastal land, from the Irish Sea westwards as far as Leixlip in the central part.

Diarmait Mac Murchada established himself there before his expulsion by the High King in 1166, a series of events that led to the area being invaded in the late 12th century, by the Cambro-Normans.

This was to form part of the heartland of the area known as The Pale during the successive periods of rule by Anglo-Norman and the later kings of England.

With the arrival of the Anglo/Cambro-Normans in 1169,[12] the territory of the old Gaelic Kingdom of Meath was promised in around 1172 to Hugh de Lacy by King Henry II of England.

This appears evidenced by several grants which he made in his own name within the city to St. Mary's Abbey, and his foundation of a hospital of St. John of Jerusalem at Kilmainham.

[18] Over half of the land in the county of Dublin was granted to religious houses and priories, as well as archbishops and monasteries, and minor lay lords.

In such a way too, an estate was given to the Irish chieftain MacGillamocholmog, who held sway over the territory of Cualann (Wicklow) when the Anglo-Normans arrived.

[26] John featured prominently in the tales of Robin Hood during the reign of Richard I of England, absent on the Third Crusade.

[27] Another Robin Hood–type, known as McIerlagh Gedy, is recorded as a notorious felon responsible for many thefts and incendiary acts in Meath, Leinster, and Fingal, and was taken prisoner, brought to Trim Castle and hanged.

[31] The first known administrative provision related to the original name was a palatine grant of the Paramount Lordship of Fingal, confirmed by letters patent from King John.

The grant was based on Hugh de Lacy, Walter's father, having held the same on a basis of grand serjeanty for his services as bailiff to the King.

The gist of the grant is recounted as follows: Grant and confirmation to Walter de Lascy, on his petition, of his land of Meath; to hold of the King in fee by the service of 50 knights; and of his fees of Fingal, in the vale of Dublin; to hold in fee by the service of 7 knights; saving to the King pleas of the Crown, appeals of the peace, & c., and crociae, and the dignities thereto belonging; the King's writs to run throughout Walter's land.

The Lordship of Fingal was, therefore, a paramount superiority over several sub-infeudated smaller baronies (such as Castleknock, Santry, Balrothery),[36] and thus eventually accrued vicecomital attributes.

[42] The Viscounts Gormanston continued to retain the Lordship of the latter under reversion.,[43] and the prescriptive barony of Fingal was also retained by the Viscount Gormanston as an incorporeal hereditament in gross, until passed to the late Patrick Denis O'Donnell,[44] and thence to his son, gazetted in England as Lord O'Donnell of Fingal.

[45] Geographically, Fingal became a core area of the Pale, and that part of Ireland was most intensively settled by the Normans and in due course the English.

Records during the period 1285–92, of rolls of receipts for taxes to the King, indicate Fingal as a distinct area, listed along with the baronies or lordships of Duleek, Kells, and Loxuedy, as well as Valley (Liffey), and sometimes under, sometimes separate from Dublin.

[49] The Act abolished feudal tenure, but preserved estates in land, including customary rights and incorporeal hereditaments.

[65] Fingal is Ireland's primary horticultural region, producing 50% of the national vegetable output and 75% of all glasshouse crops grown in the country.

[citation needed] However, the areas of production are coming under severe pressure from other development and the rural towns are increasingly becoming dormitories for the city.

[74] In 2006 Fingal County Council was lauded by prominent Irish construction industry figures, politicians and EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs for becoming the first local authority in Ireland to introduce mandatory sustainable building requirements.

[75][76] The policy, which relates to all construction in 8 parts of the county—including roughly 13,000 new homes—stipulates that the amount of energy and CO2 emissions associated with the heating and hot water of all buildings must be reduced by at least 60% compared to Irish Building Regulations, with at least 30% of the energy used for heating and hot water coming from renewable sources such as solar, geothermal or biomass.