Dublin Walking Tours: Literature, Georgian Streets and Pubs With History
Dublin is a small capital with an outsized literary record — four Nobel laureates, and a novel that maps a single day's walk across the city so precisely that people still retrace it. The centre is compact, split by the Liffey, and best covered on foot between Georgian squares, Trinity College and the pubs that writers used as offices.
Why Visit Dublin
- A UNESCO City of Literature: Joyce, Yeats, Beckett, Wilde, Shaw and Heaney
- The Book of Kells and the Long Room library at Trinity College
- Georgian Dublin — Merrion and Fitzwilliam Squares, and the doorways everyone photographs
- Pubs with genuine continuity, several of them centuries old, with live traditional music most nights
- National museums and galleries across the city centre that are free to enter
Best Walking Areas in Dublin
Trinity College & Grafton Street
The old university, the Book of Kells, and the main shopping street running south from it
Georgian Dublin
Merrion Square, Fitzwilliam Square, and the National Gallery on the corner of both
Temple Bar & the Quays
Cobbled lanes and riverside walks — a better place by daylight than at night
Kilmainham & the Liberties
The gaol, the Guinness Storehouse, and the oldest working part of the city
Phoenix Park
One of the largest enclosed city parks in Europe, with a resident herd of wild deer
Top Attractions in Dublin
- Trinity College & Book of Kells
- Guinness Storehouse
- Kilmainham Gaol
- Dublin Castle
- St Patrick's Cathedral
- National Museum of Ireland
- Temple Bar
- Phoenix Park
- Ha'penny Bridge
- EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum
Local Tips for Dublin
- Kilmainham Gaol is guided-tour only and sells out days ahead — book before you travel
- Temple Bar charges a premium; Camden Street and Capel Street are where people actually drink
- The national museums and the National Gallery are free to enter
- Bloomsday on 16 June retraces Ulysses through the city, and much of it is free to join
- Rain arrives without warning and passes quickly — in Dublin wind a jacket beats an umbrella
Best Time to Visit Dublin
May to September has the longest days and the driest weather, though "driest" is relative here. Spring and autumn are quieter and still perfectly walkable. Winter is dark by four in the afternoon, which is when the pubs come into their own.
Walking Tour Highlights
Dublin suits literary and historical routes: a Ulysses walk following Bloom through the centre, a Georgian squares circuit taking in the National Gallery, a 1916 Rising route from the GPO out to Kilmainham, and a traditional-music pub walk. Ninety minutes to three hours each.