Dublin in 3 days, on foot

This 3-day self-guided walking plan for Dublin covers 42 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 3 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Dublin rewards a detour.

Day 1

Morning

1. Trinity College & Book of Kells: Ireland's oldest university, founded in 1592, home to the breathtaking Long Room library and the 9th-century illuminated Book of Kells.
2. St Patrick's Cathedral: Ireland's largest church, founded in 1191 beside the well where St Patrick baptised converts, and the burial place of Jonathan Swift.
3. Christ Church Cathedral: Dublin's oldest medieval building, with Viking origins dating to 1030, housing the tomb of Strongbow and a remarkable 12th-century crypt.
4. Dublin Castle: Built in 1204 as the seat of English and later British rule in Ireland for over 700 years, and now where Irish presidents are inaugurated.
5. Kilmainham Gaol: Ireland's most significant monument to the struggle for independence, where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed.
6. Guinness Storehouse: Ireland's most visited tourist attraction, a seven-storey interactive experience at the St James's Gate Brewery founded by Arthur Guinness in 1759.
7. Temple Bar: Dublin's lively cultural quarter with cobbled streets, colourful pubs, street artists, and a thriving arts scene between the Liffey and Dame Street.

Afternoon

1. Ha'penny Bridge: Dublin's most iconic bridge, a beautiful cast-iron pedestrian footbridge over the Liffey, built in 1816 and named for the halfpenny toll once charged to cross it.
2. Phoenix Park: One of the largest enclosed city parks in Europe at 1,752 acres, home to wild fallow deer, the Irish President's residence, Dublin Zoo, and the US Ambassador's home.
3. Merrion Square: Dublin's finest Georgian square, known for its colourful doors, the Oscar Wilde statue, and associations with W.B. Yeats, Daniel O'Connell, and many other Irish notables.
4. National Museum – Archaeology: Ireland's premier archaeological museum, free to enter, home to the Tara Brooch, Ardagh Chalice, stunning Viking treasures, and the haunting Iron Age Bog Bodies.
5. National Gallery of Ireland: Ireland's premier art museum with free admission, housing a Caravaggio rediscovered in the 1990s and the world's largest collection of works by Jack B. Yeats.
6. St Stephen's Green: A beloved 22-acre Victorian park in the heart of Dublin, flanked by Georgian architecture and with deep associations with the 1916 Easter Rising.
7. Grafton Street: Dublin's premier pedestrianised shopping street, with Bewley's Oriental Café, the Molly Malone statue, and Ireland's best street performers.

Day 2

Morning

1. Dublin Writers Museum: A Georgian townhouse celebrating Dublin's extraordinary literary heritage, from Swift and Sheridan to Shaw, Wilde, Joyce, Beckett, Stoker, and Behan.
2. James Joyce Centre: A Georgian townhouse dedicated to Ireland's most experimental novelist, explaining the world of Ulysses and celebrating Bloomsday every 16 June.
3. The Little Museum of Dublin: A charming two-room Georgian museum with over 5,000 artefacts donated by Dublin citizens, telling the social history of 20th-century Dublin.
4. EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum: An interactive museum in the historic CHQ Building telling the story of 10 million Irish emigrants and their lasting impact on cultures around the world.
5. Docklands & Samuel Beckett Bridge: Dublin's Silicon Docks area with global tech headquarters, the harp-shaped Samuel Beckett Bridge, and the striking Convention Centre Dublin.
6. Chester Beatty Library: Voted Europe's leading museum twice, this free library in Dublin Castle grounds holds one of the world's greatest collections of manuscripts, from 5,500-year-old Egyptian papyri to Quranic masterpieces.
7. Marsh's Library: Ireland's first public library, built in 1707, where readers were once locked in wire cages with rare books, the oldest library in Ireland still in its original building.

Afternoon

1. Glasnevin Cemetery & Museum: Ireland's national necropolis, where Daniel O'Connell, Michael Collins, Éamon de Valera, and Brendan Behan are buried, with an excellent museum telling the story of Irish history.
2. National Botanic Gardens: Founded in 1795, these beautiful free gardens near Glasnevin feature spectacular Victorian curvilinear glasshouses and over 20,000 plant species.
3. Howth Cliff Walk: A spectacular coastal headland north of Dublin, accessible by DART train, with dramatic cliff walks, a medieval castle, and celebrated seafood restaurants.
4. Dalkey & Killiney Hill: Dublin's most affluent coastal suburb, with the breathtaking bay known as the Irish Riviera, and former home of Bono, Van Morrison, and Enya.
5. Malahide Castle: A remarkably intact 12th-century castle that was home to the Talbot family for 791 years, one of Ireland's most intact medieval fortifications, set in beautiful demesne grounds.
6. St Michan's Church: A medieval church founded in 1095 whose vaults contain naturally mummified bodies, preserved by the dry limestone atmosphere and said to have inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula.
7. The Brazen Head: Established in 1198 and claiming to be Ireland's oldest pub, where United Irishmen planned their 1798 rebellion and Robert Emmet drank his last pints.

Day 3

Morning

1. Winding Stair Bookshop & Restaurant: A beloved Dublin institution since 1982, a second-hand bookshop below and an acclaimed Irish food restaurant above, overlooking the Ha'penny Bridge.
2. General Post Office (GPO): The headquarters of the 1916 Easter Rising, where Pádraig Pearse read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic from its steps, the most significant building in modern Irish history.
3. O'Connell Street: Dublin's main boulevard, lined with statues of Irish heroes, Daniel O'Connell, James Larkin, and the 120-metre Spire of Dublin, and the stage for the nation's defining moments.
4. The Spire of Dublin: A 120-metre polished stainless steel spike erected in 2003 on the site of Nelson's Pillar, now one of Dublin's most recognisable landmarks and a symbol of Ireland's ambition for the 21st century.
5. Four Courts: James Gandon's 1796 masterpiece on the Liffey, Ireland's principal law courts, their magnificent dome a defining feature of the Dublin skyline, site of the opening bombardment of the 1922 Irish Civil War.
6. Custom House: James Gandon's 1791 masterpiece, considered the finest neoclassical building in Dublin, bombed and gutted by the IRA in 1921, meticulously restored, now home to the Department of Housing.
7. Leinster House: The seat of the Irish Parliament since 1922, a 1745 ducal townhouse that is said to have inspired the design of the White House in Washington, D.C.

Afternoon

1. Pearse Station: The oldest commuter railway station in Ireland, opened in 1834 as Dublin and Kingstown Railway's Westland Row, now named after Patrick Pearse, executed leader of the 1916 Easter Rising.
2. The Irish Whiskey Museum: An interactive museum in a Georgian building near Grafton Street telling the full story of Irish whiskey, from its medieval monastic origins through decline and renaissance, with guided tastings.
3. Bram Stoker's Dublin: The Dublin world of Dracula's creator, Bram Stoker was born in Clontarf in 1847 and spent his formative years in Dublin, drawing on St Michan's mummies, Marsh's Library, and the Gothic city for his masterpiece.
4. Sandymount Strand & James Joyce Tower: The Martello tower at Sandymount where Joyce briefly lived in September 1904, the opening scene of Ulysses takes place here, and it now houses the James Joyce Museum with first editions and Joyce memorabilia.
5. Wicklow Mountains & Glendalough: A sixth-century monastic city founded by St Kevin in a glacial valley in the Wicklow Mountains, two lakes, a round tower, Romanesque cathedral ruins, and wild mountain scenery, just 45 minutes from Dublin.
6. Iveagh Gardens: Dublin's secret garden, a hidden 19th-century pleasure ground behind the National Concert Hall with a fountain, cascade, rustic grottos, rosarium, and maze, largely undiscovered by tourists.
7. Dublin Bay Biosphere & Bull Island: A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on Dublin's doorstep, Bull Island is a sand spit formed since 1800, home to a bird sanctuary with 40,000 wintering birds, the sandy Dollymount Strand, and Royal Dublin Golf Club.

Full Dublin guide and all stops → · Other itineraries: 2 days