Dunlavin AFC
Football from the western edge of County Wicklow
Dunlavin AFC represents a small Wicklow town in the Kildare and District Football League. The club plays at Dunlavin Upper and returned to the KDFL as a new Division 3 entrant in 2025. Its story reaches back much further, with league fixtures carrying the Dunlavin name more than a decade earlier.
Club roots
A familiar name in Kildare district football
Dunlavin sits in west Wicklow, close to the Kildare border, so a place in the KDFL gives the club a natural run of local away trips. Newspaper fixture lists show Dunlavin AFC competing in the league by 2012. The club was playing Premier Division football in 2016, when a 1–0 home win over Kilcullen AFC appeared in the weekly Kildare results.
Return to the league
A fresh start in Division 3
Dunlavin came back into the KDFL in 2025. The Leinster Leader named the club among the new entrants when the league opened its 31st season and added a fifth junior division. That return put Dunlavin into Division 3 with clubs from Kildare, Laois and nearby parts of Leinster.
Recent football
Geoghegan hits four at Dunlavin Upper
One of the first full reports from the new spell came in May 2026. Dunlavin beat Allenwood Celtic 5–0 in a Division 3 match, with Aaron Geoghegan scoring four and taking the man of the match award. The result gives a glimpse of a side finding its feet after returning to regular league football.
Competition
League and cup football
The senior side plays through the KDFL calendar, with league matches and places in the Division 3 Cup, League Cup and League Shield. Dunlavin met Rathangan in the 2025 Division 3 Cup and hosted Arlington in the Lumsden League Cup. Match details can move during the season, so the latest fixture listing remains the best check before travelling.
Joining and membership
A route into the senior club
The club’s Facebook introduction describes a Premier Division team and invites new players to make contact. Dunlavin also has a Clubforce account with online membership and event links. Players looking for trials, training nights or registration dates should use the latest club post, as those arrangements can change through the season.
Underage football
The Dunlavin name at youth level
Youth football in the town is also represented by Dunlavin Junior AFC, whose public page describes a juvenile club serving Dunlavin and the surrounding area. The junior and senior names must remain separate in the records unless either club confirms a formal link. Families looking for schoolboy or schoolgirl football should contact the junior club directly rather than assume the senior membership covers an age group.
Club story
A club revived for the local game
Dunlavin AFC has had more than one chapter in Kildare district football. The earlier side was established enough to appear in weekly fixture lists in 2012 and to compete in the Premier Division by the middle of that decade. A break followed, before the Dunlavin name returned to the league in 2025 as one of the newcomers to Division 3.
That restart matters in a town of Dunlavin’s size. A local adult side gives players somewhere to continue playing after underage football, brings regular Sunday matches to the village and adds another Wicklow club to a competition centred mainly on Kildare. The 2026 campaign showed the work involved in rebuilding. Results ranged from a 9–2 home win over Ballycane Celtic to hard afternoons against established opposition, while the Allenwood match produced a memorable four goal display from Aaron Geoghegan.
The club’s home is listed as Dunlavin Upper by both the KDFL and Clubforce. Public records do not yet give a full facilities list, so visitors should check the current match notice for the pitch entrance, changing arrangements and parking. The club’s own social posts are also the right place to confirm training, player recruitment and late fixture changes.
Visiting Dunlavin AFC
Dunlavin Upper, County Wicklow
The KDFL venue list and the club’s Clubforce account both place Dunlavin AFC at Dunlavin Upper. The public address does not include an Eircode or a named gate. Allow time to check the match notice before setting out, particularly when more than one local pitch may be in use.