Things to Do in Dublin: Guinness, Kilmainham Gaol & the Book of Kells

Start at the Guinness Storehouse in St James’s Gate, where seven floors of the old fermentation plant end at the Gravity Bar and a 360-degree view of the city. The Jameson Distillery on Bow Street runs guided tastings in Smithfield, and Teeling in The Liberties is the first new city distillery to open in Dublin in over 125 years. Between them sit the pubs people actually travel for: The Brazen Head, The Long Hall, Kehoe’s and the trad sessions off Meath Street.

Kilmainham Gaol held the leaders of the 1916 Rising before their execution in the stonebreakers’ yard, and the guided tour is the clearest hour anyone spends on modern Irish history. Tours sell out days ahead, so book before you fly. Add the GPO on O’Connell Street, the state rooms at Dublin Castle, and Glasnevin Cemetery, where most of the names from the Gaol are buried.

The Book of Kells has been at Trinity College since the seventeenth century, and the Old Library above it holds 200,000 books under a barrel-vaulted ceiling. EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, in the vaults on Custom House Quay, tracks the ten million people who left. The National Museum, the National Gallery and the Little Museum of Dublin are all free or close to it, and Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square show the Georgian doorways the city is known for.

Dublin sits on a bay, and the DART puts the coast half an hour from the centre. The Howth cliff walk loops around the headland past the Baily Lighthouse, with four marked routes from 6 km to 10 km. Dún Laoghaire has two Victorian piers and a Sunday market. Back in town, shopping in Dublin runs from the department stores on Grafton Street and Henry Street to the vintage shops and record stores of the Creative Quarter.

Temple Bar is a few cobbled blocks between Dame Street and the river, and it is the loudest part of Dublin most nights of the week. The Temple Bar pub itself is the photograph everyone takes; the pints cost more here than anywhere else in the city. Come for the Saturday food market on Meeting House Square, the Irish Film Institute and the galleries, then walk five minutes south for cheaper drinks.

Grafton Street runs from Trinity College to St Stephen’s Green and carries the buskers, the flower sellers and most of the chain stores. The interesting part is the grid just west of it: South William Street, Drury Street and Castle Market, known locally as the Creative Quarter. Powerscourt Townhouse, the George’s Street Arcade and a run of small restaurants and coffee bars sit in a few hundred metres.

The Liberties grew up around the brewery and the medieval cathedrals, west of the old city walls. The Guinness Storehouse, Teeling Distillery, St Patrick’s Cathedral and Christ Church are all here, along with the Marsh’s Library reading room and the Thursday market on Meath Street. It is the part of Dublin where the whiskey trail and the church history overlap, and it stays busy in daylight rather than after dark.

North of the river, Stoneybatter is the oldest continuously settled part of Dublin and now a run of small terraced streets, butchers, bakeries and neighbourhood bars. Next door, Smithfield’s old market square holds the Jameson Distillery, the Lighthouse Cinema and the Generator. Both are one Luas Red Line stop from the centre and give you a version of Dublin with almost no tour groups in it.

We recommend: the city centre on foot

We recommend: two nights, the pub and whiskey trail

We recommend: the city plus Howth and Malahide

We recommend: Dublin plus the Cliffs of Moher and the Giant’s Causeway

Thirty minutes north on the DART and the easiest half-day trip from Dublin. Howth is a working fishing harbour with a market on the West Pier, seals under the boats and four waymarked cliff loops around the headland, from a 6 km circuit to the full 10 km route past the Baily Lighthouse.

Under 1h30 from the city and reachable by bus or organised tour. A sixth-century monastic settlement sits in a glacial valley with two lakes and a round tower, and the Spinc trail climbs the ridge above it for the view most people come for.

An hour north in the Boyne Valley, this UNESCO site holds the passage tombs at Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, built around 3200 BC and older than the pyramids at Giza. Access is by timed shuttle from the visitor centre only, so book ahead in summer.

Twenty-five minutes on the DART to a castle the Talbot family lived in for almost 800 years. The guided tour covers the great hall and the family portraits, and the grounds include a walled botanic garden, a butterfly house and a fairy trail for younger visitors.

Three hours west by road, on the Atlantic coast in County Clare. A Cliffs of Moher tour from Dublin is a full day, usually 12 to 13 hours, and most itineraries add the limestone pavements of the Burren or a stop in Galway on the way back.

The Enterprise train reaches Belfast in about two hours, or a coach tour from Dublin covers the city and the basalt columns of the Giant’s Causeway in one long day. Most tours also stop at Carrick-a-Rede and the Dark Hedges. Bring sterling as well as euro.