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A Self Guided Walking Tour of Dublin's Docklands
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The Docklands is one of the most layered parts of Dublin - and one of the least explored by visitors who stick to the city centre. On this self-guided audio tour, Dublin local Jack Redmond walks you through 200 years of change along the north Liffey quays: 18th-century warehouses now housing multinational tech companies, Famine memorials standing a few steps from contemporary art venues, working docks that were filled in decades ago and built over entirely.
You start at the Custom House, one of the finest neoclassical buildings in Ireland and formerly the administrative heart of Irish trade. The tour moves east from there through the old dock area - past George’s Dock (filled in 1927), the Triumphal Arch, and the Famine Memorial. Jack brings in the people who shaped this part of the city, from James Connolly to the first Dubliners, and shows how the Irish diaspora story is written directly into these streets. The tour ends around Grand Canal Square, where the BrewDog Outpost Dublin brewery and contemporary venues mark the latest chapter in the Docklands’ ongoing reinvention.
Because it’s self-guided, you move at your own pace. The GPS kicks in when you’re at the right location, so you’re never hunting for the next stop on a map. You also get unlimited lifetime access, which means you can listen before your trip to get your bearings, again while you walk, and again when you’re home and want to revisit it.
Meeting point: The Custom House, North Dock, Dublin 1, on the River Liffey. Easily reached by public transport from Busáras Luas and bus stops, or Tara Street DART station. It’s about a 10-minute walk from O’Connell Street, or 15-20 minutes from College Green.
Download the audio and maps before you arrive. The tour includes offline access to everything you need, which is worth using - mobile data in busy parts of Dublin can be slow, and having everything pre-loaded means you’re not waiting for files to buffer while standing outside the Custom House.
The Famine Memorial is one of the most affecting public artworks in Ireland. The bronze figures on Custom House Quay depict the starving emigrants who left from this city during the Great Famine of the 1840s. Most visitors to Dublin go nowhere near it. Taking a few minutes to stand here and listen to what Jack has to say about this period puts the rest of the Docklands history into a completely different context.
Busáras is worth a proper look, even if you’re just passing. It’s a 1950s building designed by Michael Scott, and it caused significant controversy when it was built because of how modern it looked in post-war Dublin. Architecture fans consider it one of the finest examples of modernist design in Ireland. Most people walk past it without a second glance, which is exactly why a guided audio experience like this one is useful.
The Samuel Beckett Bridge at the end of the route is best viewed from the south quay looking north. The harp shape is more visible from that angle, and in the right light it makes for a genuinely striking photo. The bridge opened in 2009 and was designed by Santiago Calatrava - the same architect behind the Alamillo Bridge in Seville.
Give yourself more than an hour if you want to linger. The tour is billed as under an hour at a steady walking pace, but the Docklands repays time spent. If you stop properly at the Famine Memorial, the Jeanie Johnston, and the Custom House, and take a detour through the IFSC to see how completely the old docklands have been transformed, it stretches naturally into an afternoon.