Dublin, in a day, on foot. History, culture & architecture!

We start off in the gorgeous Georgian quarter of the city where you will find our museums, galleries, libraries and Parliamentary Dublin. We will dip into these for a quick tour of the highlights, covering art, literature and the treasures of our archeological museum. Two highlights for me are a Nobel medal for literature and the passport belonging to WB Yeats!
If you are interested in James Joyce, we will call into Sweny's, a chemist shop that opened in 1847, and little changed. It featured in a scene in Joyce's masterpiece and now operates as a Joyce Centre, run by volunteers. Occasionally we get a song sung to us here!
And of course, we will visit Oscar - Oscar Wilde, a former resident of Merrion Square and famous author, playwright and poet. There is a fabulous sculpture of him in the park, close to his former home.

En route to Dublin Castle we will walk an unusual route across Dublin's central district. This is a route that showcases our wonderful mix of shops, pubs, restaurants and heritage buildings and will take a look at some fantastic Georgian ceilings. This part of the tour is also usually the time we take a break in one of Dublin's atmospheric old pubs that do food well and I have plenty of suggestions...

Dublin Castle was the seat of British rule for over 700 years and is an interesting complex of buildings. We can tour the State Apartments, visiting the former throne room and seeing St Patrick's Hall where our Presidents are inaugurated. There is also a Revenue Museum for anyone interested in tax! The gorgeous gardens to the rear provide a welcome relaxing space and the nearby restaurant at the Chester Beatty Museum is popular with clients.

En route to St Patrick's Cathedral we will take a look at Dublin City Hall if it is open. We also pass Dublin's most famous 'Fish and chipper', Burdocks. Outside this famous premises is a long list of the famous folk who have enjoyed Dubliner's favourite chip shop! (You might know chips as french fries!)

Then we will walk across St Patrick's Park to visit the largest Cathedral in Ireland, dating from 1195. This is a fascinating place with tombs, monuments, happy and sad history and it is a building that means a lot to most Irish people. Johnathon Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels was Dean here for many years and is buried in the cathedral.

We will return to the central area via Marsh's Library, the oldest public library in Ireland, founded by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh. You can see the cages that you were locked into if you wanted to borrow the books and the library is like something from a Harry Potter movie, and very charming. I will lead you through some interesting streets, before leaving you at the same place we met - unless you prefer some other destination. I am pretty flexible on things - I want you to enjoy your day and get a feel for our lovely city and have some fun!