Marshes Shopping Centre Dundalk

Miles better than the average regional shopping centre. The centre is exceptionally clean and bright and feels very safe with a good number of security staff. Almost all of the units are occupied with all the major bases covered. Wi-​Fi is free. Only two minor problems: parking is not free and they’ve recently ditched their previously great music in favour of royalty-​free rubbish. All in all a good show.

The first thing that annoys me about this place is that it’s pay parking. Why on earth should we pay to park in an edge of town shopping centre? There’s only one store here that refunds you for two hours parking and this is provided you spend twenty euro, but none of the rest can do so. The Lowry centre Manchester has pay parking, but even if you buy a cup of coffee in Costa or make a purchase in any store then you get up to 4 hours free parking. The second thing annoying is that there’s one set of toilets in the centre on an upper floor tucked in a corner, and when I visited it was disgustingly scruffy, smelly and had no paper or other towels and the hand dryer was next to useless (there is another set of toilets at the ‘town’ end of this centre well away from the main shopping area but none at all at the main car park where most people go in and out yet this is where one of the two main anchor stores (Dunnes stores) is located) I sense this suite of loos is deliberately where the centre management are located and more for their convenience (pun intended). So whoever the architect was, I wouldn’t employ him. Third annoyance is the shortage of seating on the long concourse — although with the arrival of the new Starbucks there’s extra seating — albeit for paying customers — on the concourse between it an Penneys, the other anchor store. The fifth annoyance is that the Marshes free wifi is crap. So here isn’t the place to go for a coffee and s relaxing hour, the coffee prices in Starbucks and Costa are high end and adding the parking charge would make it a very expensive coffee indeed. This place also has a Boots, a euro store, an over priced butchers, a few clothes stores plus other High St type places and a food court (KFC, Subway, BurgerKing) but nothing at all special. It appears to have a café/​restaurant but it’s not promoted in the centre, there are no menus on the window– it fact there’s no effort made to entice you in so I didn’t bother and just a tip for café management: if you don’t bother why should potential customers? One good thing is it’s very well decorated for Christmas and a lot of effort has obviously gone into this. It’s worth going to for two hours provided you intend spending twenty euro in Dunnes and you don’t mind a brisk walk of several minutes from Dunnes up a floor and then double back on yourself walking to get there. Otherwise I wouldn’t bother and I usually don’t.

This is a lovely shopping centre. Very well thought out parking wise, and is a short stroll from the centre of town. The only thing i can complain about is there should be more fashionable shops like Topshop or H&M and maybe a nice bar/​restaurant instead of fast food.

One of the main attractions in the town of Dundalk, the marshes is a lovely shopping centre located in the heart of the town. It is wide and spacious, light and airy creating a nice relaxing ambiance within it for shopping. Penneys, and Dunnes stores are the two anchor main department stores, that age very large, stock a good range and rival any of their equivalents in Dublin. Other noted companies in the shopping centre are: Mothercare, Easons, River Island, O2, Claires Accessories, Boots, New Look and so on.
Also located upstairs is a food hall, with restaurants like Subway and KFC.

The Marshes makes a nice change from small overcrowed shopping centres. Really well located within the centre and close to other shops. Lots of choice of where to eat and a HUGE Pennys with plenty of bargains to be had. Make sure you check around the corner to find the ice cream place and big sofas to have a wee sit down. A really good selection of high street stores means you won’t get bored too quickly.