Dublin – Must Visit Attractions

Introduction to Exploring Ireland

On this episode of Exploring Ireland, we’re in Dublin, Ireland’s capital city. We’ll have beer, books, and a castle as we visit the Guinness Storehouse, the Book of Kells, and Dublin Castle. We’ll talk culture, history, New Dublin, Old Dublin, Northside, Southside. We’ll talk transport, hotels, food, pubs, the what, the where, the how, and the why.

Plus, we’ll help you plan your next visit to Dublin with lots of insider tips from an award winning Irish travel writer and broadcaster. who literally wrote the book about Dublin for Lonely Planet. Welcome to Exploring Ireland.

Meet the Guides and Overview of Dublin

Each episode dives into a different area of Ireland and explores the best places to experience on your stay with the help of our local experts.

Our guides for the three must visit attractions we’re looking at in this episode are Daragh O’Sullivan Hey Dan, I’m exploring one of Ireland’s most visited attractions, the Guinness Storehouse. And a place which has a really surprising amount to experience, it’s Dublin Castle. Also joining us is Ann Marie Walsh.

I’m exploring what visitors to the city consider to be a must see destination. It’s the Book of Kells. And award winning travel writer and broadcaster Fionn Davenport also joins us. He’s going to share with us his tips and knowledge of the city. Hiya Dan, and we’re going to try to give you as much information as we can to help you make the most of your visit.

And I’m your host, Dan McDermott, Exploring Ireland with you. For our international listeners, Dublin is located on the east coast of the country, by the Irish Sea, with a population of over 1. 2 million. It’s the capital of Ireland, and therefore it’s the heart of Ireland’s cultural and economic life.

Almost 7 million international visitors come to Dublin every year, alongside almost 2 million domestic visitors.

Navigating Dublin: Transport Tips

We can talk about the what, The where and the why, but I think we should focus on the how. So, Fionn, how do we see Dublin? Well, we see Dublin primarily on foot. It’s a very compact city, so from the furthest reaches of the north side to the edge of the south side, which is the historic or interesting city centre.

Easily walkable, no more than 40 minutes from end to end. Alternatively, Um, you want to take some public transport and there’s multiple ways to get around. There is the Lewis, which is a tram system. There’s the bus system. There’s the Dart, which is a suburban rail system. And the thing I would recommend more than anything else is get a LeapCard.

LeapCard is a little green card. You can buy it in any newsagent because if you get on a bus, you have to pay exact fare. No change given. No change given. So get your LeapCard. Alternatively, there’s Dublin Bikes, which is a bike share scheme with hundreds of stations around the city. It’s free for half an hour.

It works pretty much like bike share schemes in other cities.

Exploring Dublin’s Neighborhoods

It’s also worth considering like where you’re going to base yourself. Dublin is small, so people automatically think I’m going to stay in the city centre because I want to be in the heart of the action. And if you do, you are indeed in the heart of the action.

But if you stay in the near suburbs, you get more bang for your buck, more value for money. And the relatively compact size of the city means that you’re never that far from the city centre. And you can get the Lewis in, or you could walk in, or you can get a Dublin bike in. And often times, the near suburbs are leafier, Some of the, uh, neighborhoods are really, really quite beautiful.

I think you might actually get a more authentic Dublin experience. You do, and particularly what they call the villages that surround the immediate city centre. You know, I’m thinking offhand, anywhere from Rathmines to Ranelagh to places like that. These are gorgeous standalone places with restaurants and little shops and, and Dublin life.

The other thing I wanted to say about the, uh, the DART that you mentioned, Dublin Area Rapid Transit, Suburban Light Rail. It is a lovely journey, just even on the, on the worst weather day, to go from one end of the line to the other. So it runs from Bray, which is in County Wicklow, immediately south of Dublin, right up to Hoth and Malahide, which are the northern suburbs of County Dublin.

And it runs right along the coastline. And you’re absolutely right, there’s huge sections of it where you’re, you’re running around Dublin Bay. And there’s something really beautiful about that. the whole experience. And you don’t realize is that Dublin has 13 miles of beach. Like you never think of Dublin as a beach city, but there are 13 miles of beach or 20 kilometers of beaches.

They’re thereabouts. Yeah, they’re thereabouts. The other nice thing is, I think, with all of the things you’ve mentioned, the Lewis, the bus, uh, the DART, the Suburban Light Rail, they’re thereabouts. These are all hop on, hop off services. You can stop along the way and take it in. Oh yeah, no, absolutely. And then what you do with your Leap Card is, is you tap on, tap off.

It’s a very easy one to get around, especially if you want to go exploring. And I would encourage anyone, this is when you’re done with the city centre, devote some time to go exploring the likes of Hoth or the likes of Dawkey in the south side. These are gorgeous villages that really, again, speak to the rich offer of Dublin.

Well, we have the opportunity and we’re talking about transport. What would you say about taking a taxi in Dublin? Yeah, so, there are taxi ranks and you can hail taxis. But get, download FreeNow, which always makes me laugh because the taxis aren’t free and they don’t often come now. Um, but FreeNow is the primary app.

There is Uber in Dublin, but FreeNow is by far the most popular. Taxi ride app and you download it and use it as you would any taxi sharing app. However, really, if you can, the absolute best way to get around is on foot. Stay with us for your chance to win a 100 euro gift card. Fionn recently won the best travel broadcaster award, so he knows his stuff and he’ll be back to talk about what else you can see in the area around each of our attractions, but also to let you know his top picks to visit when you’re in Dublin.

Our look at the Guinness Storehouse is next.

Discovering the Guinness Storehouse

So, to the first of our three must visit attractions in this episode, we’re off to an area of Dublin called the Liberties. Dara joins us to talk about what Dubliners call the Black Stuff. Yes, we’re visiting the heart of Dublin at the Guinness Storehouse, an iconic destination, and consistently the One of the most visited attractions in the country.

It offers these amazing 360 degree views of the city from one of the two gravity bars at the top of the storehouse. It’s the story of Ireland’s most famous stout. My name is Colin O’Connor. I’m a Guinness Brewery Ambassador here at St. James’ sc. So that role essentially entails being the face and, and the voice as well of Guinness at the Guinness Storehouse.

Arthur actually started the brewery on the last day of the year. 31st of December, 1759, when he signed a lease. So he didn’t buy it outright. It wasn’t any normal lease. He actually signed it for a whopping 9, 000 years. So when people will enter, the very first thing that they’re going to see is actually the lease that Arthur Guinness signed himself.

Inside the Guinness Storehouse

So from talking to people on our visit, The top floor definitely seems to be a favorite with visitors. That’s of course where the gravity bar is where you get your free bind to Guinness. But there are many other floors, many other things to see and experience. So essentially from the ground, the first and the second is kind of beer focused.

So the ground floor is explaining the four constituent ingredients. The first floor then is basically what we do with those ingredients. How does it come about? So how do we put all those ingredients together? And that’s obviously explaining the brewing process. Uh, and then the second floor then is why, what, what, what do they actually give to the flavors?

Why have this process? Why have those particular ingredients? So that kind of explains how we put all of those. Particular ingredients, uh, together to make the perfect pint and that’s in the form of a tasting session. But of course the Guinness story is much, much more than the beer itself. Obviously we tell a story about our publicity, our iconic branding, our philanthropy, our very much our connection with, uh, the city itself.

But wide and varied, and it’s the beauty of working at the Guinness Storehouse, is that you’re never short of things to talk about. Yeah. As you go to the next floor, the focus shifts then from brewing to branding. The third floor then is more sort of on the iconography in terms of the branding. The Gilroy Animals, for example, the Toucan.

We talk about the Surfer ad, which we’re very proud of. Which was actually voted the number one out of the 20th century, actually, by a poll that was run by the London Times there. Directed by Jonathan Glaser, actually, who was recently an Oscar winner. And, uh, we also have our surround sound cinema as well.

Well, it might be obvious as you’re listening that we are going up in the storehouse all the time. You start at the ground floor, work your way up to the seventh floor, which is where the gravity bar is. And just to mention, if you do have mobility issues, there are escalators, there are lifts. Uh, we also saw there are wheelchairs available.

FourFour then is more experiential. So we divide that into three key, uh, experiences. One is called Stouty, where we will take your picture. And what we do is we print your picture onto a, onto a pint of Guinness, or as I will say, we, we, we take one beautiful head and we put it on top of another beautiful head, if you like.

Uh, we also have the Guinness Academy, of course, uh, that’s been there for a long time now, where we teach our visitors how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. And then we have a slightly more premium experience, which is called Connoisseur. And that’s this really, really discreet bar nestled away in the corner there on the fourth floor.

There’s only 16 seats inside there. It’s basically a 90 minute experience where we go through a number of beers, put them each in its own kind of distinct historical context, and everyone gets to pour a pint of Guinness at the end there as well. So we’re about to arrive on floor five, getting closer now to the Gravity Bar.

Before then, it’s kind of a beer and food. So we have two restaurants. We have one bar, Arthur’s bar, I think four then is the mezzanine, and then the seventh bar obviously is the, the pièce de résistance, where we have, uh, not one, but two gravity bars. When we opened. And as a Guinness storehouse in December 2000, we had one gravity bar and then February 2020, a second one.

So we’ve got both sides of Dublin covered now, the city side and also the west side as well. You end up with a perfect pint of Guinness and that’s a, it’s just a beautiful way to, to top it off. You know, we’ve got different experiences for different levels of interest. It’s all, it’s all down to you, whichever way you want to go.

The History and Impact of Guinness

Finally, I asked Colin to tell us something most people don’t know about Guinness. I think we all got a Guinness Book of World Records every Christmas, you know, probably whether we wanted one or not, but we’re always grateful for one. So if you tell people about the Guinness Book of World Records, that initially was only for the bars, you know, it was only meant.

As a kind of a reference book to settle pub arguments, but what they found very, very early on was that people were pocketing the book and they were heading back to the barman. So then Guinness thought, well, you know, people are prepared to do that. They’re probably prepared to, you know, to, to pay for it.

And it looks like there’s going to be a market for that. So they very quickly upgraded it then into a book that could be available in the, in the bookshelves. And it became literally an overnight success. I have to say, I really enjoyed the visit. I think when Irish people think of Guinness, it must remind us, really, of ourselves.

A thing that’s made here in Ireland, it’s been exported all over the world, in bulk, particularly, from the 1800s, yet it remains very Irish at its core, no matter where it ends up. And the storehouse, I think, tells that story really well. It really does. It’s so true. It’s amazing the impact that the Guinness brand has had around the world.

Thanks for that, Dara. Let’s do our quickfire round on the Guinness Storehouse. Question one, where is it? It’s in the Liberties. Really historic part of Dublin. You just walk down Thomas Street from Christchurch and you will reach St. James’s Gate, literally. You can’t miss it. It’s about 20 minutes from Trinity College Green as well.

Next question, how do we get there? Best way is to walk. You’ll see a lot of Dublin. Uh, you’ll see a very old, historic part of Dublin as you walk through Thomas Street. You can also get on the hop on, hop off bus, uh, or you can just follow the smell of hops. Follow your nose. That’s it. Is it free? Is it paid?

Uh, it’s very much paid, right? It’s a full on commercial experience. It’s, it’s 20 euros. For the standard experience is what they call it. So that gives you, you know, access to all seven floors, your free pint up in the gravity bar, all the rest. You can pay eight euros more for a stoutie, which is basically your face printed on a pint, and then you can drink your face.

Uh, 12 more for the Guinness Academy, where you learn how to pour a pint of Guinness. And there are premium experiences too. We’ll pop all the links in the show notes. What are your top tips? Top tips, go early. So we went about half nine in the morning. We were there at the opening. We had a bit of space. We were able to get to those Instagrammable moments and places.

It does get busy. So do book in advance, especially in high season. Comments and reviews. What do they say online? So what they say online pretty much reflects what people told us on the day. It gets 4. on Google. Overwhelmingly positive. When people didn’t like us. Mainly it was the commerciality of it, and look, it’s the Guinness Storehouse, it is very commercial.

The other comment was, it’s not a brewery tour, and look, it’s not a brewery tour, you can do that, and we’ll stick the link in the show notes for people who might want to do that. But look, overwhelmingly it was a positive experience, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was, now it’s big, it’s brash, it’s loud, it’s all about Guinness as the brand, and what most people really loved about it was the free pint.

Open the gravity bar at the end. You get a 360 degree view of Dublin and a pint of Guinness. What’s not to like? That’s it from Dara. Back to our resident travel expert, Fionn Davenport.

Exploring the Liberties and Beyond

So Fionn, I find myself outside the Guinness Star House having just visited and done the tour. Now I’m in the Liberties.

What should I know about the wider area? What else is great to see and to visit? Okay, so this is an interesting one. Arthur Guinness, obviously founder of the Guinness factory, was also a very kind of hard nosed businessman. He established his brewery. Just around the same time as there was like something like half a dozen whisky distilleries in the Liberties and the Liberties was the heart of whisky distillation in Ireland, but also by 1890 something like 80 percent of the world’s whiskies were distilled.

were distilled here. Wow. So you had the likes of Jemison, you had the likes of Powers Whiskey, which is now the National College of Art and Design, and other distilleries. And then by the turn of the 20th century, a whole host of things kind of worked against whiskey and whiskey kind of fell out of favor.

So you didn’t have any distilleries at all until about 10 years ago. So now you have the Teeling distillery, you have the old Roe Co distillery, which interestingly enough is an old power station that belonged to Guinness. Now at the time, in the 19th century, Roe, George Roe, who was the massive distiller, and Guinness were huge rivals and there was a thing, a big advertising campaign where Guinness was the nurse of the people, whiskey was the curse of the people, and it was a way of Guinness winning out over.

over whisky. And nowadays, uh, so Row Co, which was established only in the last five or six years, in the old Guinness Power Station, so once great enemies, now part of the one conglomerate. So you can go to visit these whisky distilleries in the area, um, not too far away, so on either side. So if you continue along west, along James Street, you get into Kilmainham, and there you have the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

which is a very important museum, set in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, which is founded similar to Les Invalides in Paris, an absolutely stunning building. And literally next door to that is Kilmainham Jail. And Kilmainham Jail is an incredibly important experience in Dublin because it was here that the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916 were executed in the courtyard.

This was, if you really want to know about Irish struggles for independence from Britain, um, visit to Kilmainham Jail is an absolute must. And so what you have is that you have neighbourhoods like the Liberties, which is a traditional working class neighbourhood of Dublin. But right next to it is you have this, the ostentatious wealth of the Cathedrals you have.

And not far from there you go into kind of George and Dublin and the You know, the well to do would have all lived cheek by jowl. And it makes a visit here just that bit more interesting, I think. Thank you, Fionn Davenport. Fionn will be back to talk about what else you can see in the area around the Book of Keld Experience and also to give you more of his top picks to visit when you’re in Dublin, including our list of top Dublin pubs.

Well, we’ve got the beer covered. If we can move to history and culture in the next couple of segments, we’ll be talking more about those when we visit Dublin Castle and the book of kas. And by the way, we’ve included links to most of the things that we talk about in this episode in our show notes, or you can find them@exploringireland.co.

Let us know what your top visitor attractions in Dublin R is. There somewhere you think is a must see for anyone coming to the city. Let us know. Email hello@exploringireland.co. Our look at the book of K experience is next.

The Book of Kells: A Cultural Treasure

Now on Exploring Ireland, an illuminated manuscript from the year 800. That does not mean it’s a 1200 year old book with a light shining on it.

Instead, it’s an astonishingly detailed work of artistry. It’s a religious text that has survived raids, peft, damage and near destruction. A Christian Celtic manuscript containing mainly the four Gospels along with other Christian texts. It is a masterpiece. The Book of Kells. Dublin city is home to one of the most beautiful medieval manuscripts in the world.

The Book of Kells at Trinity College, Dublin. It’s a must see destination for visitors to Ireland. And I spoke to Dervla McFadden from the Book of Kells exhibition. experience, and she explains about the origins of the manuscript and what to expect from a visit. So the Book of Kells is often cited as Ireland’s greatest cultural treasure, and the book itself is an ancient manuscript, so it’s from 800 AD, if you can imagine that’s far back.

It started its life in Iola in Scotland, a very, very remote island, and made its way then to Kells. So Kells and me, before then coming to Trinity back in the 60s, they then go upstairs and they go to the long room. So the long room is within the library, the old library of Trinity, and so Ireland’s front room.

And it is a majestic, awe inspiring room, um, filled with our precious collections. And a new installation that we put in is Gaia, so Gaia meaning Mother Earth, Mother Nature, which is a 3D installation of the Earth. It’s by an artist called Liv Gerram and our visitors adore it. The Gaia installation, it was definitely one of my favorite parts of my visit there.

I loved how people from all over the world were kind of silently awestruck at this vast globe slowly spinning above our heads in the library. And Pat Liddy from walkingtours. ie, he knows more than a thing or two about Dublin. Here he explains how lucky it is that the Book of Kells survived relatively intact throughout the rigours of time.

It’s no harm at all to take your time when you visit the Book of Kells, go through all the displays and information boards before you actually look at the book. Because otherwise you’d say, oh, it’s just a book. This is one of the most amazing books to survive from medieval times anywhere in the world.

The pages are still jumping with life. The, the writing, the exquisite drawings, paintings, the colors are still vibrant. And this was executed about 1200 years ago. And survived attacks by Vikings, being buried in the ground, being shifted from one place to another. And it arrived in the 1650s into Trinity College and it’s been there ever since.

And once you see the book and you see the old library, which at the moment is devoid of books because it’s going through a great new rehabilitation process. There’s another exhibition, a very interactive exhibition. Dervla shares her top tip for visiting the Book of Kells experience in just a moment.

But first, how long does she suggest you allow for a visit and what else can you see there? So for our visitors, we encourage them to allow about 90 minutes, that’s 45 minutes for the old library. So that’s where the book of Kel did and also the long room, because there’s so much to see within that historic space.

And then another 45 minutes for the accompanying digital exhibition, because within that there’s three spaces. The first space is all about the secret life of the collection. So about some of those amazing stories. stories and collections and books and manuscripts within the library. The second space then is the Book of Kells 360.

So this is where you journey and understand the, the, the exciting narrative that the Book of Kells went on from 800 AD up until present times. And then the final room is all about the long room. So the long room reimagined. So we often suggest to allow 45 minutes for that part of it. And here’s Dervla with that excellent insider secret tip.

So some little secrets about Trinity that we would quite like not to be a secret is a lot of people don’t know that you can stay in Trinity during the summer months. So this is outside the academic term when our students have gone off on their summer holidays. And you can stay on the historic grounds.

Exploring Trinity College and the Book of Kells

So imagine waking up in history and heritage in Trinity. The Book of Kells is one of the wonders of the medieval world and a visit to it and Trinity College is definitely one that we recommend you add to your list of destinations in Dublin. itself is just one of those places you could hang around the whole afternoon, look at the architecture, enjoy the grounds.

It’s a really beautiful part of the city. Stay with us for your chance to win a 100 euro gift card, which you can spend when you visit Dublin. We’ve included links to most of the things we talk about in this episode in the show notes, or you can find them at exploringireland. com. Anne Marie, you’ve joined us for a quick fire.

Where is the Book of Celts? Well, the Book of Celts experience is located in the grounds of Trinity College campus. It’s a really central location. Trinity is around the corner from Grafton Street and St. Stephen’s Green. Temple Bar and O’Connell Street are within five minutes walk away.

Navigating Dublin: Transport and Tips

If we’re travelling, how do we get there?

There are lots of public transport options. Dublin bus and the hop on hop off tour buses all stop outside. The Dart and the Lewis train stops are within five minutes walk. Is it free or do we have to pay? You have to pay and there are a few options. One of the most popular ones and the ones that I did is the Book of Kells experience package.

It takes in the Book of Kells, the Long Haul library and the digital experience. Tickets cost 25, which includes the self guided tour. Allow around 90 minutes for that. We did hear, and we will talk about it more in a minute, but we did hear some in reviews that talk about the self guided tour. Remember, if you’re going to do the self guided tour, that you bring headphones because you use your smartphone.

If you had some top tips to share with us, what would they be? Pre book your tickets, especially during peak season. And when I was there, I really enjoyed the grounds of Trinity College itself. And it is free to take a wander around those beautiful grounds. And I would really recommend you do that. Nice.

Visitor Reviews and Tips for the Book of Kells

Two reviews. TripAdvisor, Google, what do they say? What’s the good, what’s the bad? TripAdvisor give four and a half out of five, Google gives a 4. 4 rating. Lots of the reviews mention that it’s a great destination for history buffs. It can be crowded though, so do book in advance, and you only get a few moments to look at the book itself, which is brilliant.

Some people mention that the books in the library are undergoing conservation. The shelves are not fully stocked and this is a little disappointing given the admission price. A great tip from reviewers is that you only get to see two pages of the Book of Kells. The pages are turned on a rotating basis.

So, as illuminated manuscripts go, some pages more illuminated than others, depends when you’re there. Exactly. Brilliant Anne Marie, thank you. Fionn is back now to give some tips on the area around the Book of Kells.

Exploring Nearby Museums: Little Museum of Dublin and Museum of Literature

So, the Book of Kells is in Trinity College, which is smack dab in the heart of the city.

So, you have all of the city really right in front of you. So, from shopping along Grafton Street and the streets around it. But if you want a couple of museums that I would highly recommend is one, The Little Museum of Dublin, at the top of Grafton Street, just off on St. Stephen’s Green. Now this is an award winning museum, but it tells the story of Dublin in a very peculiar way, in that all of the artefacts in the museum were donated by Dubliners themselves.

And so you have things like, the things that they found, like for instance, like a lectern that was used by JFK during his visit here in 1963. There’s a whole room dedicated to the history of U2. given with, like, everything from flyers and photographs and ticket stubs and, you know, guitars and jackets, etc.

Um, the museum also runs some great tours, both of Stephen’s Green, which is right in front of it, but also, like, themed tours of Dublin. The other one is a more new addition to the city, also on Stephen’s Green, and it’s the Museum of Literature, Ireland. Uh, hardly surprising, given that Dublin is a capital of literature, with thousands of books.

to its name. Um, and these are two Georgian townhouses that have been brought together. Um, Newman College. It’s the old buildings of Newman College, which is the forerunner to University College Dublin, which is where James Joyce went to university. And the history of, of, of Irish literature is told in this, in very interactive style.

So they’re the two recommendations I would make. Last but not least, in that same vicinity, and a real Dublinism as a name, The Dead Zoo. The Dead Zoo. So this is an interesting, so this is the Natural History Museum. It’s one of three museums that form the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. Another one is the two branches of the National Museum and as you said, the Dead Zoo.

So this was opened in 1857, if I’m not mistaken, and the person who cut the ribbon was Dr. David Livingstone, who this is a few years Yes, before he disappeared, um, into the jungles of Africa, only for Henry Stanley to find him with a Dr. Livingstone, I presume.

Discovering Dublin Castle

Our look at Dublin Castle is next. Dara is back with Dublin Castle, just off Dames Street, at the centre of life in the city for as long as the city has existed.

We’re exploring Dublin Castle, a site steeped in Irish history from the Vikings to the present day. It’s literally been at the heart of Dublin life and politics. It was once a medieval fortress. And now it’s a great way to experience the evolution of history in the city. So I’m William, I’m the curator of Dublin Castle.

So what is Dublin Castle? A large campus at the heart of the city of Dublin. It would have been established probably in Viking times as a settlement of some sorts, possibly a Viking fort. And then taken over by the Normans when they arrived in Ireland, arrived in Ireland in 1169, captured Dublin the following year in 1170.

And in 1171, Henry II came to Dublin. And really from that point onwards, the castle was the center of English and then later British administration in Ireland. right up until the 16th of January, 1922, when the castle was handed over to the provisional Irish government. So let’s set some expectations.

What can we expect on our visit? We spoke to Pat Liddy from walkingtours. ie. There’s not much he doesn’t know about Dublin. Most people expect to find a castle, like maybe Edinburgh Castle or something like that. There’s very little of the old medieval castle remaining above ground, except for a massive tower.

This is called today the Rekhor Tower. It used to be the Gardarobe Tower, which was essentially the official toilet center of the castle. The walls in this, we often ask people, how thick do you think the walls of this tower are? And they say three feet, four feet, thinking they’re maybe exaggerating, but in fact, they’re 15 feet thick.

These towers were meant to withstand ballistics being fired at them. They, they were pure medieval, architecture to survive any attack. Now, one of those towers is still standing. And the lovely thing is that underground, there’s still a lot of the medieval castle. And if you buy in very important to know this, if you buy in to a guided tour of the castle, and you can only do that on the day you appear at the castle, it’s a first come first serve sort of thing, but they go every half an hour, they take you underground.

And they show you what remains of the Norman, the English, and even the Viking walls, and part of the old moat, and an old doorway going into the castle called a posturing gate. Place is full of history, but like everything in Dublin, you have to dive a little deeper. So lots to see in Dublin Castle. If we focus on the inside of the castle, William is the curator and he told us his top tips for your visit.

Inside Dublin Castle: Tours and Highlights

I suppose our most popular experience would be our guided tour. So, to visit the State Apartments, which were once the home of the British Lord Lieutenant, which are a suite of large, grand rooms designed for entertaining, it’s the best experience you’ll get because a guide will be able to answer your questions.

You know, you can always question something a guide has said to you, and it’s like, oh, but what about this? The guided visit allow you to see the most of Dublin Castle, like I say. The Viking and Medieval excavation, which was discovered here in the 1980s, has part of the original Viking embankment of Dublin, and that’s the oldest physical part of the city that you can actually see.

It shows you the base of the medieval gunpowder tower. It shows you the Chapel Royal, which was built between 1807 and 1814, which is a wonderful Harry Potter like building of ornate Gothic Revival architecture. It’s stained glass and carved wood and painted plaster to look like stone. It’s, it’s just, it’s a magical building in so many respects.

And then you get to see the State Department’s suite of drawing rooms, dining rooms, the throne room, and then of course, St. Patrick’s Hall. St. Patrick’s Hall was the ballroom of the castle, host to many a famous party and all night dancing. And these days it’s where we inaugurate the President of Ireland every seven years.

We also host occasional state dinners here and that famously would have been where Queen Elizabeth II was entertained by President Macleese when she visited Ireland. So after you’ve done the guided tour, there’s still a lot to see in Dublin Castle, outside in the yards and the gardens. While you’re wandering around, I asked William to tell us what to look out for.

The gardens and the yards are open for free. There are other small museums in the castle as well, and the Irish Police Force on Gardaí Síochána have their museum at Dublin Castle. Uh, the Revenue Commissioners of Ireland have a museum underneath the chapel, um, and of course the, the world renowned Chester Behe Library are based here in Dublin Castle in the former Ordnance Office.

And all three of those museums, um, are free to visit. So you can effectively come and walk through the entirety of the grounds of Dublin Castle and stick your head into any of those three museums, uh, for nothing. So not a medieval castle, but lots and lots of things to do. In Dublin Castle, it’s got a slice of many, many generations of Dublin history and culture and politics.

If that’s your thing, Dublin Castle may well suit you. Thanks a lot to William Derham from Dublin Castle and Pat Liddy, author, historian, and guide. And you can find all that info in our show notes or by visiting exploringireland. co. Thanks for that, Dara. Let’s do our quickfire round on Dublin Castle.

First question, where is it? Hey Dan, it’s very central. It’s on Dame Street. Dame Street runs from Trinity College, where the Book of Kells is, all the way down to Christchurch. It’s going to take about five minutes to walk from Trinity to Dublin Castle. It’s behind City Hall if you get lost. How do we get there?

Uh, if you’re staying in the city centre, walking, hop on, hop off buses, literally it is the centre of the city. And there is a Dublin bike station just outside. Is it free or is it paid? Some parts are free. It’s just a walk around the grounds, to walk in the gardens, that’s all free. But admission is by guided tour.

So you can choose the self guided tour, which is eight euros, fraddles, 20 for a family, or you can choose to do the guided tour. By far, that’s the best way I’ve seen it. I think state departments. Medieval bits, Choppa Royal exhibitions. That’s 12 for adults, 30 for a family. Great, thank you. That’s it from Dara.

Back to our resident travel expert, Fionn Davenport. Fionn, what should we know about the area and what else is great to experience while we’re there?

Exploring the Surroundings of Dublin Castle

On the, on the grounds of the castles, I, I would argue is one of the best museums in Europe. Oh yeah, tell us more. So the Chester Beatty Library is a world famous collection of around 20, 000 manuscripts, including the second oldest biblical fragment in the world, the best collection of illuminated Korans found outside of the Arab world, and a host of other, like Chinese scrolls, Japanese paintings, and they’re basically all all gathered together by Alfred Chester Beattie, who was an American industrialist, who gifted the entire collection to the Irish state sometime in the late 50s or early 60s.

And the collection is found here. And, and it’s a free museum. It’s, it’s, to me, it’s one of the best experiences in the city. Um, immediately around Dublin Castle, and Dublin Castle is very much in the heart of Dublin, but the two cathedrals. So on one side, you have Christchurch Cathedral. Which is the oldest cathedral in Dublin and the flying buttresses become instantly recognizable.

One of the things I like inside is, is there’s a, inside the crypt there’s a glass case display in which a mummified cat is chasing a mummified rat. Um. Obviously, they died in the organ, whatever, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, but they’re called Tom and Jerry. Of course they are. Yeah, absolutely. And then you have St.

Patrick’s Cathedral, which is the other cathedral of Dublin. This is a city with three cathedrals, by the way. Uh, St. Patrick’s Cathedral is the, is the mother church of Protestant Ireland. And, uh, it’s built on the spot where St. Patrick Uh, is said to have baptized the pagan Irish chieftains into Christianity in the 5th century.

So there’s a well in the garden next to it that, and this is where the water sprung from, where St. Patrick did the baptism. And that’s all within like, like literally a stone’s throw of Dublin Castle. It is an audio only medium that you’re listening to us on, but I’m a man who loves a bag of chips. Now, for Irish people, that’s potatoes cut and fried, not crisps.

And just a short distance from your time at Dublin Castle, you can enjoy one of the best bags of chips in Dublin City. And then on to to more cultured things. Yeah, so, well, I mean, an experience at Leo Burdock’s, which is on Warburg Street, just at the back of the castle, is a tradition that goes back many, many decades in Dublin.

And Bruce Springsteen is a regular. Every time he comes here, he will go to Burdock’s. I have a long list of celebrity friends. Oh, yeah, yeah. All on the wall. Um, and it’s an interesting thing, as you see all of it. So Burdock’s backs on to, um, the Ivy Trust, which is all these houses built by the Guinnesses.

for the workers who worked in the Guinness Storehouse, which isn’t a million miles away from here. At the back of that, you have St. Patrick’s Cathedral. And just behind the cathedral Is you have Marsh’s Library. Now everybody knows about the book of Cals. Marsh’s Library to me, is just as beautiful. This is a scholar’s library.

Uh, it was founded by, um, narcissist Marsh, who was the archbishop of St. Patrick’s in and opened in 1707. So it makes it the oldest ex extent public library in Ireland and Britain. Fantastic. It’s an absolutely stunning place and very few people ever go to it. Right now, how would you like to win a 100 gift card to spend when you’re in Dublin?

It’s very simple to enter, just go to our website, exploringireland. co and you can find the entry form. While you’re there, let us know what you liked about this episode and what you’d like to hear in future episodes. We’d love to hear from you. Go to exploringireland. co to enter. Now. If.

Must-Visit Attractions in Dublin

There were other aspects that were outside of our three topics, things that you must, must see across Dublin.

What would you say? You cannot come to Dublin without crossing the river to the north side, which is where I’m from and a proud, uh, dweller of the north side. So, um, the Grand Street of Dublin, Uh, runs from O’Connell Bridge right up until Parnell Square. The one, uh, it’s, it’s where the GPO, our general post office, so these beautiful buildings.

Um, two museums that I absolutely would recommend is, one is, uh, 14 Henrietta Street. Dublin has a, uh, Checkered history with poverty, in that it was a grand old city during the Georgian time, so the height of the 18th century, but in the 19th century it was a city of great squalor. And 14 Henrietta Street is an old Georgian townhouse, that was built for a grand old somebody, that then occupied, say 20 families would have occupied it in the 19th century.

So you really get a sense of, from from great privilege to squalor and now it’s it’s a really it’s like the Tenement Museum. Um, the other one I would say is the Hugh Lane Gallery. There are a number of great art museums in Dublin. Um, the Hugh Lane Gallery is great for modern contemporary art, but it’s also has the perfectly recreated studio from London of Francis Bacon, the painter.

And it’s just recreated, literally transported down to like even splotches of paint. And it’s exactly where it’s in behind glass. So you get to see like one of the famous artists of the 20th century. This is the, this is, these are the conditions he worked in. You get to live the moment. Yeah, you really do.

And it’s, it’s a great museum. Again, in a beautiful Georgian townhouse on Parnell Square. One of the best, best restaurants in Ireland is in the basement of that. It’s called Chapter One. Yeah. So Michael Villanen, it’s a two Michelin star restaurant. It’s absolutely, if you get it, if you, if you are lucky enough to get a reservation and, and have the means to afford one of the best meals of your life, I would strongly recommend it.

Well, if you’re planning a trip in 2026, maybe that one to do. And of course, outside the Hugh Lane Gallery, one of my favorite art galleries. installations, the, uh, the orange illuminated walking, uh, Yes. Human form. That’s right. Beautiful. And really, it’s a thing that you can marvel at for quite a few minutes.

Uh, the only thing I would say is that this is a, an incredibly important part of the city, Parnell Square and O’Connell Street. Unfortunately, just due to the, the particular nature of all cities confront their social ills, once it gets dark, I just keep my wits about me. Okay, Fionn, final recommendations for our visit to Dublin.

What do we not want to miss? Well, it’s really, there’s a couple of things. I would recommend doing a, uh, a food tour. Uh, really get a sense of the kind of rich offer of food. Fab Food Trails I think is great. It’s a two and a half to three hour tour. Um, it’s really terrific and get to meet local producers and you really sample all different kinds of great food in Dublin.

Nothing, you cannot come to Dublin without visiting.

Dublin’s Best Pubs and Bars

One of Dublin’s traditional pubs. Like, a visit to the city is just a waste of time if you don’t. And these are some, these are pubs that have been replicated, you know, the Irish pub kit that is built all over the world. Come to Dublin, go to the real thing.

I’m going to name you a couple, I’m going to name four. One is, Mulligans of Fulbeck Street. Mulligans is the classic Dublin pub. In the 1950s, before he was a politician, JFK came here and drank in the pub. Why? Because he knew that this was James Joyce’s favourite pub in Dublin. He was a local here when he lived in Dublin.

Um, The Long Hall and The Stag’s Head are two Victorian classics. All relatively close to each other. Absolutely beautiful bars, stained glass windows. The Long Hall is a favourite of Bruce Springsteen, again. So, after he’s had his chips, he then goes into the Long Hall for a pint. Kiosk, just off Grafton Street.

Another classic Dublin bar. And then finally, O’Donoghue’s, O’Donoghue’s of Merrion Row. Again, a great old Dublin bar, but it’s also the traditional home of trad and folk music in Dublin. This is where the Dubliners, the famous Dublin band, this is where they got together in the 60s and they still have nightly sessions of traditional Irish music.

A night in a Dublin bar, it’s where you get to meet Dubliners at their convivial best and incoherent worst sometimes. But it really is like a real kind of insight into Dublin living. is go spend a couple of hours just having a chat and you’ll get to meet people. You go in, you sit next to somebody, you start up a conversation before you know it, you’re fast friends and that thing you were saying about Dublin taxi drivers, you will get to know more about Dublin sharing a pint with a Dubliner than you will in any other circumstance.

Fascinated that you picked those bars. I’m curious to know what you might think of some picks I might throw back at you. So for me, I don’t disagree, particularly on the front of Mulligans, because I think it’s got that proper, old fashioned, working class, real Dublin feel, long haul, because it is so distinct.

But I think if we go a little further outside town and we go to somewhere like Whelan, it’s a live music venue that’s been graced by so many celebs throughout the time. And I think Dublin does dive bar. differently. What do you think? Yeah, it does. And, uh, yeah, it definitely does the dive bar experience.

But I always think of the dive bar as a New York thing, imported into Dublin. Whelan’s is a great bar, and you’re right, and it’s great for seeing bands on the up or bands on the down. Um, other pubs I might add is Fallon’s, which is in the heart of the Liberties, an absolutely brilliant bar. If you’re going from the Guinness Storehouse and you’re walking up towards Kilmainham, the Royal Oak, Now there’s a Dublin pub.

Great choice. That’s another one that’s got plenty of room for everybody to fit and you will meet every strad of someone from Dublin in that part.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Thanks for listening to Exploring Ireland. Each episode dives into a different area of Ireland and explores the best places to experience on your stay with the help of local experts.

In future episodes we’ll be showcasing the best attractions and destinations from all over Ireland so make sure you subscribe and follow us. Bye. Helping us out in this episode and exploring three must visit attractions in Dublin, we’ve had award winning travel writer and broadcaster, and Lonely Planet author, Fionn Davenport, sharing his tips and knowledge of Dublin with us, and helping us experience the attractions were our guides, Dara O’Sullivan and Anne Marie Walsh.

As ever, I’ve had so much fun. I’m Dan McDermott, your host, and we are Exploring Ireland. This podcast is a production of Radio Hub. You can email the team at podcasts at radiohub. ie.