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Discover Dublin A Private Tour
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If you’d rather explore Dublin at your own pace than follow a group, this self-guided audio tour app is worth knowing about. You download it before you go, it works offline, and it covers 40+ attractions and quieter spots across the city. There’s no guide on the ground - just your phone and however much time you want to give each place.
The suggested route takes in Trinity College and the Book of Kells, the Georgian squares, Ha’penny Bridge, Temple Bar’s medieval lanes, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin Castle, the Guinness Storehouse, Merrion Square, O’Connell Street, Phoenix Park, EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, and the Liberties. You can follow it in order or pick the stops that interest you most.
Trinity College Dublin - Ireland’s oldest university, founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I. The Old Library’s Long Room stretches 65 metres under a barrel-vaulted ceiling with 200,000 of the library’s oldest books. The Book of Kells, created by Celtic monks around 800 AD, is one of the finest examples of medieval art and Ireland’s most celebrated cultural treasure. (pass by)
Grafton Street - Dublin’s main pedestrianised shopping street, running from Trinity College to St. Stephen’s Green. Buskers, Victorian shopfronts, Brown Thomas, and Bewley’s Oriental Café - where Dubliners have been gathering since 1927 - all sit along this stretch. (30 min)
St. Stephen’s Green - Nine hectares of Victorian parkland at the top of Grafton Street, with formal gardens, a lake, a bandstand, and statues of James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, and other Irish literary figures. Open to office workers, students, and families since 1880. (60 min)
Ha’penny Bridge - Dublin’s most photographed bridge, spanning the Liffey since 1816. Named for the half-penny toll once charged to cross, it connects Temple Bar to the north side’s shopping streets. (30 min)
Temple Bar - Dublin’s cultural quarter: cobbled streets, traditional music sessions in historic pubs, street performers in Meeting House Square, the Irish Film Institute, contemporary galleries, and weekend food markets. (30 min)
Christ Church Cathedral - Founded by Norse King Sitric in 1028, rebuilt in stone by Norman Strongbow in 1172. The crypt runs beneath the entire cathedral and is one of the largest in Britain and Ireland. It holds some curious relics, including a mummified cat and rat found trapped in an organ pipe - known locally as Tom and Jerry. (pass by)
St. Patrick’s Cathedral - Ireland’s largest cathedral, built on the site where St. Patrick is said to have baptised converts in the 5th century. Jonathan Swift was Dean here for 32 years; his tomb, death mask, and pulpit are all preserved inside. (pass by)
Dublin Castle - For over 700 years, the seat of British rule in Ireland, from its medieval foundations to 1922 when the last Viceroy handed power to Michael Collins. The ornate State Apartments now host presidential inaugurations. The grounds include the Chester Beatty Library and excavated Viking defences. (30 min)
Guinness Storehouse - Built around the historic St. James’s Gate Brewery, where Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease in 1759. The seven-storey experience takes you through the brewing process and advertising history, finishing at the Gravity Bar with complimentary pint and 360-degree views. (pass by)
Merrion Square - One of Dublin’s finest Georgian squares, surrounded by elegant townhouses with colourful doors and ornate fanlights. Oscar Wilde’s childhood home at Number 1 faces his reclining statue across the park; plaques mark the homes of W.B. Yeats, Daniel O’Connell, and others. Art market on Sundays. (30 min)
O’Connell Street - Dublin’s main northside thoroughfare, dominated by the 121-metre Spire and the General Post Office, which served as the headquarters of the 1916 Easter Rising. You can still see bullet holes in the GPO facade. Monuments to Daniel O’Connell and Jim Larkin line the street. (30 min)
Phoenix Park - One of Europe’s largest enclosed urban parks at 707 hectares, home to wild fallow deer descended from a herd introduced in the 1660s, as well as the residences of the Irish President and the American Ambassador, and Dublin Zoo (open since 1831). The Wellington Monument, Papal Cross, and Magazine Fort add historical interest. (60 min)
EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum - In the beautifully restored CHQ Building, this museum tells the story of the 10 million people who left Ireland over the centuries and their impact on the world. Interactive galleries explore the Irish contribution to music, literature, politics, and science globally. (pass by)
The Liberties - Dublin’s oldest neighbourhood, its name coming from the medieval liberties granted to areas outside the city walls. The Guinness and Jameson empires grew up here; so did generations of market traders and weavers. Traditional pubs, the Iveagh Markets, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral anchor the area today. (60 min)
Meeting point: Main entrance to Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2, D02 VR66. The Front Gate faces onto Dame Street and College Green. GPS: 53.3438° N, 6.2546° W.
Download the app and the content before you leave your accommodation. Even though it works offline, you don’t want to be standing outside Trinity College waiting for a download. Getting it sorted over WiFi the night before means you can just start walking when you arrive.
The suggested six-hour route is generous, and you probably won’t cover everything in one go unless you’re moving at a clip. Pick the stops you care about most - Trinity, Dublin Castle, and Merrion Square are all genuinely rich - and give them proper time rather than ticking boxes. You can always come back to Phoenix Park on a separate afternoon walk.
Merrion Square is one of Dublin’s real hidden pleasures. The park itself is lovely, but it’s the details on the surrounding townhouses that reward a slow walk - the colourful doors, the iron boot scrapers, the plaques marking where various writers and politicians lived. Oscar Wilde’s statue in the park is worth finding; it’s one of the better pieces of public sculpture in the city.
In the Liberties, the neighbourhood audio content is at its most interesting because the area doesn’t look like much on the surface but has one of the richest histories in Dublin. The streets around the Iveagh Markets and Cork Street were the centre of the city’s weaving trade for centuries, and the pub culture there is as old as anywhere in Dublin.
If you want to go into the Guinness Storehouse, book a timed ticket online before you arrive - the queue without one can be considerable. The same goes for the Book of Kells at Trinity. The app routes you past both, but if you want to go inside, a bit of planning saves you a lot of standing around.