Dublin: A Perfect Day on Foot

Dublin is one of the great cities of Europe with a compact historic center, easy to discover on foot as you will see in our perfect day in Dublin. We'll walk down lively shopping streets past many a pub and outdoor café, venture into some parks like St. Stephen's Green, and visit the campus of Trinity, the nation's oldest college.

Our grand walk through the heart of Dublin strolls through a network of shopping streets including Grafton, the main pedestrian lane, then more lively areas up to Merrion Square, and around to Temple Bar, the lively musical center for eating and drinking. This covers the main sites of central Dublin with a route about five miles long, easily covered in one day on foot.

O'Connell Street

We start out on O'Connell Street, the busy main thoroughfare, named after Daniel O'Connell, who stands proud as a statue honoring this Irish leader from the 1820s. The street bustles with pedestrians passing the shops, hotels, and restaurants. It is one of the widest streets in Europe, with two broad pedestrian sidewalks and a tree-lined central median full of statues, with trams and buses running down the middle. This street is a mandatory stop on any visit, but it is only the tip of the iceberg of what Dublin has to offer. Most of the action is concentrated to the south, on the other side of the River Liffey.

From the O'Connell Bridge there is a view down the river toward another famous bridge. The Ha'penny Bridge is one of the landmark sites of Dublin, a pedestrian footbridge that used to cost half a penny to cross in the old days. Now it is free, and it leads right over to Temple Bar across the River Liffey.

Westmoreland Street to College Green

Standing at O'Connell Bridge, we head into Westmoreland Street, a short, lively block lined with sandwich bars, cafes, currency exchanges, and small shops. It becomes College Street, with many buses flying past and one of the most active pedestrian intersections in town. Just beyond, you will see the magnificent curved facade of the Bank of Ireland, originally built in 1729 to house the Irish Parliament. Today it is a working bank.

A block over, we pass MJ O'Neill, a traditional Victorian pub. In front of it we meet Molly Malone, the bronze fishmonger with her wheelbarrow of cockles and mussels, immortalized in that famous Dublin song, which you might even hear coming from nearby O'Donoghue's pub. A nearby restaurant occupies what had been a bank constructed in 1894, with a preserved interior that includes fifteen-foot marble columns, carved plaster ceilings, and original stained-glass skylights.

Dame Street and the Side Lanes

Continuing along Dame Street, you will enjoy a fine mix of pubs, sandwich joints, Italian restaurants, and bakeries, along with the Millstone Restaurant, one of the longest-running steakhouses in the city center, opened in 2006. Its interior keeps the feeling of the old Georgian building, with a cozy atmosphere, an open kitchen, and that specialty of Irish grass-fed beef. Dame Street extends for one kilometer, quite wide and busy with shops and restaurants, and it passes the city hall of Dublin.

Behind Dame Street you find Dame Lane and Dame Court, narrow side passages strung with colored banners and lined with pubs. The Stag's Head opens onto Dame Court, and on a fine evening the crowd spills out the door with stand-up tables filling the cobbled lane and a drink in everyone's hand. The casual, sociable street-corner pub, where strangers fall into conversation as friends, is one of the great pleasures of Dublin, a city famous for its friendly and talkative people. It is a great place to meet some Dubliners and experience why the Irish are so renowned for being welcoming and chatty.

The Creative Quarter

Just around the corner we reach one of my favorite streets in Dublin, lined with many different shops, clothing stores, and restaurants, including a French bakery famous for its macarons, Ladurée, bringing a touch of Paris to the heart of Dublin. Changing names from Exchequer to Wicklow Street, this is part of a network of lanes now called the Creative Quarter, a place for Dubliners to have some fun, take a break, and do a little shopping. The Cornucopia vegetarian restaurant has been a fixture of the neighborhood since 1986.

The history of the street runs deeper than the shopfronts suggest. For more than five centuries it was part of a single longer thoroughfare, later built up with Georgian and Victorian structures housing dressmakers and tailors. Now it is mostly restaurants. You do not see many tourists here, which is ironic, because it connects right up with Grafton, the main pedestrian boulevard for visitors.

Grafton Street

Grafton Street is quite popular with locals too, because it is packed with stores and street entertainment, though no bicycle riding is allowed, just a friendly warning. Grafton extends for six glorious blocks, lined with shops and restaurants all the way. It is a magnificent car-free promenade with no traffic, just the steady flow of pedestrians from morning till dark.

Brown Thomas, founded in 1849 as a clothing store, has become Dublin's senior luxury department store. It has an outdoor terrace cafe on the third floor, part of a French-inspired restaurant with seating along the length of the building, and the M&S Food Hall nearby is always reliable. Music fills the air thanks to regular performances by street buskers, who always appreciate any coins you might toss their way.

While walking on Grafton there are a couple of side streets worth ducking into, like Anne Street South with its iconic pubs and, at the end, the pale stone facade of St. Anne's Church with its rose window, a fine nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival church. Then meander a block south to Duke Street and another famous pub, the Bailey, featured in James Joyce's Ulysses.

Street performance in Dublin is regulated by various rules, prompted by complaints from retailers and residents about noise and crowding. Performers must apply for a permit and pay an annual fee, with an extra charge for amplification. On Grafton, a performer can stay in one spot for a maximum of one hour, then must move at least 100 meters away.

At the end of Grafton you come upon a major shopping center with a bold modern curved exterior, St. Stephens Green Shopping Centre. Three floors wrap around a central atrium covered by a barrel-vaulted glass roof, with escalators and walkways crossing the open space and natural light flooding in. It was the largest shopping center in Ireland when it opened in 1988 and remains one of the biggest, with around 100 shops.

St. Stephen's Green

Beyond Grafton Street we see a triumphal arch, a gateway to the beautiful park in the heart of Dublin. St. Stephen's Green is a real charmer, with all the elements you would hope for in the perfect urban oasis. These twenty-two acres had been a swampy marsh until the green first became a private park in 1678, with homes for the affluent built around it and a wall to keep out ordinary citizens.

Today there are abundant green lawns, two small ponds, scattered benches, flower beds, a fountain, ducks and geese, soaring trees, a bandstand, and a snack stand, with locals enjoying themselves throughout. The park was opened to the public by Parliament in 1877 and rejuvenated by a wealthy benefactor, Sir Arthur Guinness. You might get lucky and catch some music and dance, an outdoor party in the gazebo. There are two playgrounds with the happy noise of children, and on warm days the central lawns fill with office workers eating lunch and students lying flat on the grass.

Toward Merrion Square

Continuing from St. Stephen's Green, a few blocks along Pembroke Street bring us to Matt the Thresher, a fine seafood bar and grill and a great spot for a lunch break with fresh fish, oysters, and a proper pint or glass of wine in a relaxed dining room. The kitchen specializes in the very best of Irish seafood, drawing on Dublin Bay prawns, oysters, sole, and halibut from the harbors around the bay. The original Matt the Thresher in Tipperary has been trading since 1890.

A few more steps bring us to Baggot Street Lower, cutting through the heart of Dublin's Georgian business district. It is another authentic neighborhood with very few tourists, where the lunchtime trade dominates. From around noon the takeaway places run queues out the door: Chomp offers grain bowls and salads, Munchies does sandwiches and breakfast rolls, and an upscale Spar Gourmet has a deli counter and an Insomnia cafe concession inside.

A block away we arrive at Merrion Square, with a central garden open to the public, twelve acres of lawns, flower beds, and mature trees, with a wooden playground tucked in one corner. It is a fine place for a stroll or to sit right down on the grass on a sunny afternoon. The weather has been beautiful on this day because I am visiting in late May, an ideal time to be in Dublin.

One of Ireland's greatest writers, Oscar Wilde, is honored here with a dramatic statue, reclining in a green jade jacket and trousers of Norwegian granite. He looks sophisticated, suave, and witty, yet his face reflects an inner turmoil, a smile on one side and sadness on the other. He lived in the white house across the street until he was twenty-four. The square is surrounded by elegant, ivy-covered brick homes.

The Galleries and Museums

Around the corner are the Government Buildings, a grand Edwardian neoclassical complex housing the office of Ireland's prime minister, built in 1904. Next to that is the National Gallery of Ireland, with an excellent selection from the major periods of European art history. The Italians are well represented by Caravaggio, Fra Angelico, Mantegna, and Titian; the French school includes Poussin, Fragonard, and a roomful of Impressionists; and the Dutch and Spanish masters run from Vermeer and Hals to El Greco, Velázquez, and Goya. It is a world-class collection, yet small enough to appreciate in an hour or two, and admission is free. The gallery is generally open from 9 to 5 but closed on Sunday.

Next door is the Archaeology branch of the National Museum of Ireland, with a curved loggia outside and a magnificent Victorian rotunda within, dating from 1890. The architecture alone makes a visit worthwhile, and the treasures inside include one of the largest hoards of prehistoric gold in Western Europe, with Bronze Age neck torcs gleaming in their cases, a Viking wooden dish and ladle, a replica Viking boat, and a treasury room of ecclesiastical metalwork.

Dawson and Nassau Streets

In two short blocks you are on Dawson Street, with another excellent collection of shops, restaurants, and hotels. It is one of Dublin's most attractive streets, with rows of Georgian and Victorian terraces in red brick and stone, and the modern light-rail tram runs right down the middle. Dawson brings us out at Nassau Street, which runs along the south wall of Trinity College.

Nassau Street is lined with a big variety of shops, including cafes and outdoor produce stands, a sweater shop for cashmere and Aran knits, and plenty of souvenirs, a great place to pick up gifts to bring home. Drop into O'Brien's for a coffee or sandwich, or browse inside Kilkenny, famous for Irish craft and design and showcasing the work of about 200 local artists.

Trinity College

At the north end of Nassau Street you reach Trinity College. There is a side entrance here, but we will take you in the main front gate for that classic view. Trinity is one of the world's great schools and a leading attraction, with more than half a million visitors each year. People come to see the graceful campus, with its wonderful collection of historic buildings and gardens arranged across thirty-five harmonious acres.

Founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth as Ireland's first university, Trinity boasts many famous graduates, including the authors Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, Oliver Goldsmith, and Bram Stoker, author of Dracula. One very special item draws everyone: the Book of Kells, exhibited at the impressive college library. This beautiful illuminated manuscript was created in the eighth century by Irish monks preserving the knowledge of civilization during the Dark Ages.

Behind the main buildings, a large open lawn is used for cricket and for students relaxing on a warm afternoon with a beverage from their pavilion bar. Trinity has about 15,000 undergraduates and 7,000 graduate students from 120 different countries.

College Green

From the peaceful campus we head out the front door onto College Green, one of the busiest bus intersections in the country, with the impressive Bank of Ireland opposite. We are now a couple of blocks from what is probably themost popular gathering place in the city.

Temple Bar

Temple Bar is a hub of Irish music, eating, drinking, and good times. In fair weather you will see crowds out on the streets with a pint in hand and music spilling from the pubs. Locals tend to stay away, partly because the beer runs more expensive here, up to around ten euro for a pint compared with roughly six in the rest of the city, but the atmosphere and the music are what draw the visitors. You do not have to spend a thing; just come and walk around and listen.

Temple Bar has its own full page on this site, with much more on its pubs, music, history, and atmosphere.

To complete our walk we leave Temple Bar by crossing the Ha'penny Bridge and heading up Liffey Street, a mix of small independent shops, a camera center, a music store, and a chocolate shop, a local kind of place, ordinary shops for regular people.

While the shops are modern, a traditional outdoor market on the crossing with Moore Street has been trading since the 1700s. Stalls under blue-and-white striped awnings sell fruit and vegetables to the calls of the traders, a long-standing local scene set against the discount phone-repair and convenience shops behind. Henry Street itself was established in the early 1800s and has been pedestrianized since the 1980s.

Henry Street ends at O'Connell Street, the city's main boulevard, marked by a tall stainless-steel monument at the crossing. O'Connell Street is the Broadway or Fifth Avenue of Dublin, a grand old boulevard with wide sidewalks and important historic monuments, newly rejuvenated by the tram service running down its center. The most famous building here is the grand neoclassical General Post Office. There are still bullet holes in its columns from the role it played in the Easter Rising of 1916, when a small band of Irish freedom fighters made it their headquarters and fortress. The main hall is still a working post office, with exhibits about the uprising.

We end where we began, at the O'Connell Street bridge, reflecting back on a perfect day in Dublin.

More Sights Beyond the Walk

In addition to all the places covered in our walk, Dublin has more sights worth seeing slightly beyond the city center, easily reached on foot or by bus. To take them all in you will probably want at least one more day. Most cluster in the old medieval quarter just west of Temple Bar, where the cathedrals and the castle stand within a few minutes of one another, with the Guinness Storehouse a little further on into the Liberties.

Guinness Storehouse

Beer lovers must visit the Guinness Storehouse, where you can learn all about the brewing of that famous dark stout and enjoy a fresh sample at the end. Set inside the old St. James's Gate brewery, where Arthur Guinness signed a now-legendary 9,000-year lease in 1759, it is the country's most popular tourist attraction, drawing well over a million visitors a year. The exhibit climbs through seven floors built around a glass atrium shaped like a giant pint glass, tracing the ingredients, the cooperage, the advertising, and the brewing process. As part of your admission you get a lesson in how to properly taste the brew, a technique you might apply to all your eating and drinking: breathe out through your nose with your mouth closed to get the full flavor of whatever is in your mouth, as the guide will explain. The journey ends in the rooftop Gravity Bar, where a complimentary pint comes with a sweeping 360-degree view across the city.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral is the largest and tallest church in Ireland, with its spire reaching 43 meters. It was built on an early Christian site where St. Patrick is said to have baptized his converts in the fifth century. The tower dates from 1370, and most of the rest was rebuilt during the nineteenth century in the Gothic style. Its most celebrated dean was Jonathan Swift, who presided here from 1713 to 1745 while writing Gulliver's Travels and other satirical classics that mocked the establishment of his day. Inside you will find his tomb and epitaph, along with memorials, banners, and choir stalls that make it one of the city's most atmospheric interiors. Surprisingly for this Catholic nation, both of Dublin's great cathedrals, St. Patrick's and nearby Christ Church, are Protestant, belonging to the Church of Ireland.

Christ Church Cathedral

Christ Church Cathedral is Dublin's oldest surviving building, originally constructed around the year 1030 by Vikings who had already converted to Christianity. These Norse settlers established a major trading port on the nearby riverbank at Wood Quay and are considered the founders of Dublin, making this the only cathedral in Ireland or Britain with a Norse foundation. After the Vikings were defeated by Irish warriors, the Normans invaded, following up on their conquest of England, and rebuilt the church in their own style, leaving a large crypt beneath that survives today as the oldest structure in the city.

The building grew from its Romanesque origins into early English Gothic in the thirteenth century, then gradually deteriorated before being thoroughly renovated in the 1870s into the neo-Gothic form we see today. A great deal of care has gone into maintaining it in recent years, both as a visitor attraction with fascinating historical displays and as the center of an active cathedral congregation. Do not miss the vast medieval crypt, one of the oldest and largest in Britain or Ireland, which holds curiosities including a mummified cat and rat famously preserved in its organ pipes.

Dublinia

Christ Church extends across the street, by way of a covered stone bridge, into a building that houses Dublinia, a medieval museum with a dramatic multimedia exhibit focusing on the early Viking settlement and medieval Dublin. Here history is vividly brought to life by guides in costume, with multi-screen shows, genuine artifacts of the period, and classes for young students. A walk through reconstructed historic streets lets you experience medieval life firsthand, and for an added bonus you can climb St. Michael's Tower for a fine view over this old part of Dublin. There is no elevator, and it is 96 steps to the top, but the view is well worth the effort.

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle is another government building of great interest to visitors. It was the seat of English rule in Ireland for nearly 800 years, and is open now as a museum. Begun as a fort and castle, it evolved over the centuries into a royal palace and the ceremonial heart of British administration, and today its lavish State Apartments, the medieval undercroft, and the Chapel Royal trace the long arc of the city's governance. The castle still hosts state occasions, including the inauguration of Ireland's presidents, and its quiet courtyards make a pleasant stop just up from Dame Street.

Videos

Watch the full videos on their own pages: Dublin Perfect Day and Another Look at Dublin.

Video for aother Look at Dublin

Ireland is best known as a land of quaint villages, friendly people, and wild natural beauty, but there is another side to this emerald isle: the urban charms of Dublin.

Map of Our Dublin Walk