Dublin: Small Group Bucket List Sights Walking Tour

Highlights

• Admire Christchurch Cathedral, as old as the Vikings
• Discover St. Patrick's Cathedral, named after our beloved patron saint
• Explore Dublin Castle, centre of British rule until independence in 1922
• Experience Temple Bar, famous for live music and lively Irish pubs
• Visit Trinity College, home of the magnificent Book of Kells exhibition

Description

Dublin is an old town with a fascinating story, first settled by the Celts 2,100 years ago. In the following centuries it has been settled by Christians, Vikings, Normans and English, right up until the modern day influence of the Americans at the Silicon Docks.

We begin the tour at Christchurch Place and marvel at the magnificent cathedral, originally built in wood by the Vikings a thousand years ago before being recast in stone by the Normans. We have the whiskey money of Henry Roe to thank for the spectacular 19th-century neo-Gothic cathedral that we see today.

Our next stop is at St. Patrick's Cathedral, named after our famous patron saint who banished the snakes off the island. Burial place of the former Dean, Jonathan Swift who wrote Gulliver's Travels, today's cathedral was wonderfully restored thanks to the generosity of Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness in the 1860s.

Onto the Dubh Linn Garden, location of the outstanding Chester Beatty Library and the location where the Vikings moored their long boats when they arrived in Dublin twelve hundred years ago.

Through both the lower and upper courtyard, we explore the stunning mix of medieval and Georgian architecture at Dublin Castle, the seat of British government in Ireland for 700 years until it was handed over to Michael Collins and the Irish Free State upon independence in 1922.

In Temple Bar District, we will see one of the oldest parts of the city dating from the Tudor Conquest in the 16th century and, nowadays, the lively centre of pubs, live music and nightlife.

Over the River Liffey to the north side for a view of the city from the original Celtic settlement from 2,100 years ago up to the Silicon Docks, inspired by the Americans in the 21st century.

Back over the iconic Ha'Penny Bridge and through Merchant's Arch onto Crown Alley, we consider Sam Stephenson's brutalist behemoth at Central Plaza.

Onwards to College Green, we are rewarded by some of the finest neoclassical Georgian architecture (banks and parliament) at what was the centre of government and finance in the city that considered itself to be the second city of the Empire.

No tour of Dublin is complete without saying hello to Dublin's favourite daughter, Molly Malone, outside St. Andrew's Church.

To finish our ramble through the old town, we finish up our tour outside the front gate of Trinity College, home to the famous Book of Kells exhibition.