Attractions in Dublin
Dublin offers a number of great attractions, not least in the form of magnificent cathedrals, magnificent buildings and old schools. The city also has some interesting museums and you can also take the opportunity to drink beer while experiencing the biggest tourist magnet in Dublin!
Christ Church Cathedral
This is to be Ireland’s oldest building, and the roots of this Protestant cathedral go all the way back to 1038. The cathedral is located south of the river in the original Viking settlement and just off Dublin Castle, which made this area the center of Dublin in the Middle Ages.
Open daily from 2 pm 0945 to 1700, entrance approx. 40 kroner.
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle has played an important role in Dublin’s history from the early 13th century, though today there is only one tower left of its original construction. The castle is not just a tourist attraction, parts of it are still used for state affairs and sometimes closed to visitors.
Open from 2 pm 1000 to 1645 on weekdays, from 1 p.m. 1400 on weekends. Entrance approx. 40 kroner.
Trinity College
Ireland’s oldest and most prestigious college was founded in 1592. Trinity College [see photo first in article] is best known for hosting the world famous Book of Kells. This is one of the world’s oldest preserved books, written around the year 800 with the New Testament Gospels, beautifully and intricately decorated. Outside, you will probably be offered one of the students a guided tour. Open daily from 2 pm 0930 to 1700 Monday to Saturday, 5 p.m. 1200 to 1630 on Sundays. Entry around NOK 65, free for children under 12 years.
Guinness Storehouse
Ireland’s foremost tourist attraction is The Guinness Storehouse next to the Guinness Brewery. Here, half of all beer consumed in Ireland is produced, primarily the Irish’s much-loved dark beer. The tour of the different stages of the brewing process is most for special interest.
Most people will enjoy old advertising campaigns in the museum, souvenir shop and not least a free pint of Guinness in the Gravity Bar at the top of the building, where you have a 360-degree panoramic view of the rest of the city. Open daily from 2 pm 0930 to 1700 (to 1900 at July and August). Entrance approx. 120 kroner.
Dublin Writers Museum
Dublin is also known for its remarkable number of internationally renowned authors, and these are honored in a separate museum on Parnell Square north of Liffey. Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Bram Stoker, Samuel Beckett, Jonathan Swift and George Bernhard Shaw are just some of the ones you can get closer to.
Open daily from 2 pm 1000 to 1700, Sundays from 7 p.m. 1100. Entrance ticket approx. 60 kroner. Click here for the Dublin Writers Museum website.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Although the bishop has his seat in Christ Church Cathedral, St Patrick’s is larger and is considered the National Cathedral of Ireland. It dates from around 1191 and is named after Ireland’s patron saint St Patrick, who supposedly baptized people in Liffey at this place.
Open from 2 pm 0900 to 1700 on weekdays, to 2 p.m. 1800 on weekends. Entry around 50 kroner.
See more information about opening hours on the website.
National Museum
Opened in 1864, this museum now has over 2,500 paintings, including masters such as Picasso, Goya, Rembrandt, Tizian, Caravaggio and Tintoretto. The exhibition of objects from ancient Egypt is also very extensive and popular. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 5 p.m. 1000 to 1700, Sundays from 7 p.m. 1400. Free admission.
For more information.
St Stephens Green
St Stephens Green is a large, beautiful public park in inner Dublin, at the southern end of Grafton Street. This idyllic nine-hectare park has a lake with an artificial waterfall, statues and fountains, and was built in Georgian style under English rule in the 1600s. Today it is a popular place to sit down with the lunch pack or take a picnic with the family.
Tourist in Dublin
If you only have a few days to get to know Dublin, you may want to hop on one of Dublin’s open double-decker tour buses, which will drive you to most tourist attractions and provide you with information in English. Here you can hop off and stay as long as you want in each place, and hop on the next bus when you feel like it. But Dublin city center is still so compact that a normally skinny person will have no trouble getting around solely on foot.
If you plan to visit several of Dublin’s attractions and museums, you may definitely want to buy a Dublin Pass, which gives you free access to most museums, buses and the airport bus. One-day pass costs around 250 kroner, two-day pass approx. 410 and three-day pass approx. 490 kroner. There is also a six-day pass for around NOK 750. Children pay approx. 2/3 of the price.
Day 1 in Dublin Attractions and Tourist
This is going to be a long day with lots of walking, so have a hearty breakfast at the hotel before setting off. We start the day in Dublin’s oldest area, west of downtown and south of Liffey. First stop is Dublin Castle. The entrance fee costs approx. 25 kroner, but if you just want to stroll around the courtyards and look at the buildings from the outside, it costs nothing. The parts called Undercroft are from the original Viking fortress, the rest are gradually built on later.
If you want to see more about our ancestral Viking activities, you can walk a few hundred meters towards Liffey and you will find Dublin Viking Adventure in Essex Street West. This is an interactive exhibition that tries to recreate life in the narrow streets that lay just here a thousand years ago. As you exit, turn west and walk down Fishamble Street, and you will soon see Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin’s oldest building from 1038. On the north side of this, there are constantly excavations in the old Viking settlement. And west of the cathedral lies Dvblinia, a center for medieval Dublin, with vivid exhibits featuring wax figures, recreating important episodes in the city’s history.
Guiness Storehouse
If you feel like going for a longer walk, you can now follow the main streets of High Street and Commarket Street about two miles straight west. You will then come to Dublin’s premier tourist attraction, the Guinness Storehouse. Here you can see the brewing process of the Irish favorite drink, the dark Guinness beer. Exactly this is most especially for people of interest, most will find the museum and the Guinness store as interesting. And finally you end up on the 8th floor at the top of the building in The Gravity Bar, where you get a free pint of Guinness. You can enjoy this with a 360-degree panoramic view of Dublin. As you can see, this is a fairly flat city, with no high hills or skyscrapers.
Lunch, beer and shopping
When you’re back at Dublin Castle again, you’ll probably start getting ready for lunch. Head north towards Liffey up Parliament Street and you’ll soon see the Turk’s Head pub on your left. It serves a wide variety of light meals for lunch, such as sandwiches, chicken wings or salads. Afterwards, continue east into Temple Bar and spend the rest of the afternoon strolling around in this tourist-favorite neighborhood. Here you will find hundreds of galleries and museums, pubs and restaurants, souvenir stalls and fashionable shops that can keep you busy for hours.
Once you get back to your hotel with your shopping bags, get a shower and change your clothes, it’s time to think about dinner. Back to Temple Bar, and at # 22 is the small Alamo restaurant, which serves large portions of Mexican food at the most acceptable prices despite its location in the city’s most expensive district. There are not many restaurants serving Irish food for dinner, but if you want, you can try Jacob’s Ladder at 4 Nassau Street.
Pub visit to Dublin
Of course, you have to end the evening at a real traditional Irish pub, and no pubs in all of Ireland have a longer history than The Brazen Head, not far from Guinness and Christ Church Cathedral. This exceptionally cozy pub opened its doors in 1198, and several of Dublin’s best bands play here on the weekends. (And then we mean bands playing Irish folk, not U2 and Thin Lizzy.)
Day 2 in Dublin Attractions and Tourist
Park Visits, Thin Lizzy and Trinity College
Today we start with a walk in St. Stephens Green, the large park at the end of Grafton Street, which, with its lakes, statues and playgrounds, is an idyllic and peaceful oasis right in the center of the capital. The park is surrounded by several buildings of historical significance, such as the Rubicon Gallery, Huguenot Cemetery, National Museum and Newman University Church.
From the northwest corner of the park you can continue up the colorful Grafton Street pedestrian street with all its shops, pubs, street performers and musicians. In the side street of Harry Street is a bronze statue of one of Dublin’s great sons of recent times, Thin Lizzy vocalist Phil Lynott, who died in 1986. This street may take some time to get through, but at the top you turn right, and you will come to Trinity College. Here you can, among other things, see one of the world’s oldest and most beautiful books, the famous Book of Kells.
Monument of Light
Continue north afterwards, cross the Liffey on O’Connell Bridge and you will reach the northern street’s main street, O’Connell Street. Right in front of you you will see the 120-meter-high Monument of Light, and in the side street of Abbey Street on the left you will see the pub The Oval, a fine place to stop and have a good, easy lunch.
At Monument of Light (and the statue of author James Joyce), O’Connell Street crosses Henry Street, one of Dublin’s foremost shopping streets. This is a pedestrian street that, after a few hundred meters, changes its name to Mary Street, where you will find lots of shops such as Penney’s, HMV, Debenhams and Body Shop, as well as the new Roches Stores center. Also look up the side street of Moore Street, where you will find many small and charming shops.
With today’s shopping done, you continue up O’Connell Street. This one ends in Parnell Square, and here is the Writers Museum. Dublin has, as is known, an exceptionally many world-renowned authors, including four Nobel laureates, and in this museum you can become more familiar with sizes such as Dracula author Bram Stoker, Gulliver’s travel writer Jonathan Swift and Pygmalion author George Bernhard Shaw.
Following today’s cultural dose, you can stroll a few hundred yards down to Parnell Street, where you will find the pleasant Patrick Conway pub just west of O’Connell Street. Did you know that Ireland was the first country in Europe to impose a smoking ban on its pubs and night spots? Relax with a pint of Guinness here and have a chat with some of the local guests before heading back to the hotel.
For dinner we will leave the Temple Bar course again. At East Sussex Street 24 is the cozy and award-winning restaurant Shack, and after dinner you can cross the street to the Clarence Hotel’s exclusive nightclub and bar The Octagon, where owners of Bono and The Edge from U2 occasionally stop by. Otherwise, you have hundreds of pubs within easy walking distance, after all you are in Temple Bar!