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Dublin Coastal Hike with Howth Adventures
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From €39 per person
Every guide on this tour grew up in Howth. They know the headland’s paths, its hidden spots and its history from the inside — and that makes a real difference on a walk like this. You’re not getting a rehearsed script; you’re getting the knowledge of someone who has been walking these cliffs since childhood.
Starting at Howth Market, you head along the harbour — keep an eye on the water for the resident seals — then up through old village paths past the abbey that Viking King Sitric built, across the heathlands to the summit with the views HG Wells called the most beautiful in the world. From there, the famous cliff walk takes you along the headland with Howth Harbour, Ireland’s Eye and Lambay Island laid out below. Along the way you’ll hear about Howth Castle — your guide has been known to describe it as Howth’s own Game of Thrones — and see the house where W.B. Yeats once lived, and the Martello Tower built to guard against Napoleon.
Groups are capped at 10. The tour starts at 11:00am, and when it ends the village has plenty of good restaurants, cafes and pubs if you want to stretch the afternoon.
Meeting point: Outside Bodega Coffee Shop at the front of Howth Market, opposite Howth Train Station and the bus stop. Please arrive 10 minutes before your departure time (11:00am).
Howth Market is the right place to start your morning. It runs at weekends and has a good range of local food, coffee and craft stalls. Getting there early gives you time to pick up something to eat before the guide arrives, and you’ll be walking off the croissant within minutes.
The heathland section is beautiful in late spring. Howth Head turns purple and yellow when the heather and gorse flower, usually from May through July. The cliff path in that condition, with the sea on one side and wildflowers on the other, is hard to beat anywhere in the Dublin region.
HG Wells really did write about the view from the summit. The quote your guide will reference isn’t marketing copy — it’s documented. The summit looks north toward the Mourne Mountains and south toward Wicklow on a clear day, and on a very clear day the views extend further than you’d expect from a headland this close to a capital city.
Yeats lived in Howth during his childhood. The house your guide shows you on the walk is associated with his formative years on the headland. If you’re interested in Irish literary history, that connection — Yeats the poet, Howth the place — is worth sitting with as you walk the cliff path he would have known.
After the hike, the harbour has several seafood restaurants worth trying. The fishing fleet still lands a daily catch, and the restaurants along the pier serve it fresh. The village is genuinely one of the better places to eat seafood in the Dublin area.