Dublin Walking Hibernoceltic Tours

About This Tour

Barry is a native Dubliner with deep knowledge of the city’s history, architecture, and cultural layers - and he keeps his groups to a maximum of 15, so you actually get to talk to him rather than following a flag through a crowd. That small group size is one of the most important things about these tours. You can ask questions, double back on something interesting, and have a real conversation about the city rather than a broadcast.

Each tour runs up to 2 hours and 40 minutes, including walking and travel time. The guided elements run to around 1 hour 10 minutes. Barry also knows the city well enough to point you toward the right places after the tour - where to eat, where to drink, and what’s actually worth seeing - which saves you the time of working it out yourself.

Tours cover four themes, each with its own route and set of stops: Viking and Medieval Dublin, The Great Famine, Georgian Dublin, and the Revolutionary period.

What’s Included

• Guided walking tour with Barry (Dublin native and local guide)

What’s Not Included

• Coffee and/or tea

Itinerary

1. Dublin Castle - on both the Viking/Medieval and Famine Tours, Barry walks you through the castle grounds and covers its history, architecture, and cultural significance. (20 min)
2. St. Audoen’s Church - on the Viking/Medieval Tour, you’ll visit the grounds of the only remaining medieval church still operating in Dublin. (10 min)
3. The City Wall Gate - on the Viking and Medieval Tour, a visit to the last remaining gate of Dublin’s City Wall, dating to 1240 AD, and the passageway into the old medieval city - known locally as “The Stairway to Heaven.” (5 min)
4. The Old Irish Parliament (Grattan’s Parliament) - on the Famine Tour, Barry covers the history and architecture of this early 18th-century building, and explains how its collapse at the start of the 19th century was one of the underlying causes of the Great Famine’s most devastating effects. (5 min)
5. The Custom House along the River Liffey - on both the Famine and Revolutionary Tours, you’ll pass this striking example of Georgian architecture, widely considered one of the finest buildings in Dublin. (pass by)
6. Trinity College - on the Georgian Tour, you’ll pass the grounds of Ireland’s oldest university, with over 430 years of history. (pass by)
7. Leinster House - dating from the 1740s, now home to the Dáil (Ireland’s national parliament). Barry covers its history and architecture, and its influence on Dublin’s Georgian southside. (pass by)
8. Merrion Square - on the Georgian Tour, a walk through Dublin’s finest Georgian square, including a visit to the monument to Oscar Wilde. (20 min)
9. O’Connell Street and the GPO - on the Revolutionary Tour, you’ll walk Dublin’s main thoroughfare and pass the General Post Office, the last of the great Georgian buildings of Dublin and the headquarters of the 1916 Rising. (pass by)
10. Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square - on the Revolutionary Tour, a visit to where the Irish Volunteers were held overnight after surrendering, plus a pass by the Hugh Lane Art Gallery. (10 min)
11. North Great Georges Street - on the Revolutionary Tour, one of the finest examples of Georgian Dublin. Barry covers the living conditions in the tenements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and you’ll pass the James Joyce Centre - celebrating the author of Ulysses, the novel that describes a single day in Dublin and is considered the birth of the modern novel. (pass by)

Meeting point (Revolutionary Tour): The Spire Monument on O’Connell Street, on the median island, opposite the General Post Office. The Revolutionary Tour runs every Thursday at 10am.

Good to Know

• Groups capped at 15 people
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels
• Public transport is available nearby
• The active guided elements run approximately 1 hour 10 minutes; the total time including walking and travel is 2 hours 40 minutes
• Barry is happy to advise on restaurants, bars, and other Dublin highlights after the tour
• Conducted in English

Local Tips

Pick your theme before you book. The four tour themes cover very different ground - both physically and historically. If your interest is the 1916 Rising and revolutionary politics, the Revolutionary Tour is the obvious pick. If you want to understand the city’s physical bones, the Viking/Medieval Tour is the place to start. Barry knows his subject across all four, but you’ll get more out of the tour if you arrive with some context about why the period matters to you.

The City Wall Gate stop on the Viking/Medieval Tour is genuinely rare. Most visitors walk right past it and don’t realise what they’re looking at. A section of Dublin’s medieval city wall, dating to 1240 AD, is still standing in the city centre. Barry puts it in context in a way that makes you see the whole neighbourhood differently.

Small group size is the real selling point here. At a maximum of 15 people, this isn’t a tour where you end up four rows back straining to hear. If something in the itinerary sparks a question, ask it. Barry’s knowledge runs deep and he’s not working to a rigid script.

The Merrion Square stop on the Georgian Tour is one of the best in the city. The Oscar Wilde monument is worth a look, but the square itself - the proportions, the colours, the way it’s been maintained - is a lesson in how Dublin thought about itself in the 18th century. Spend a few minutes after the guided stop just walking the perimeter.

After the Revolutionary Tour, the nearby northside is worth an hour on foot. The Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, and North Great Georges Street form a compact area with more history per square metre than almost anywhere else in the city. Barry will point you in the right direction.

Nearby on IrelandMe

• Dublin - the city Barry knows inside out, with Viking, Georgian, and revolutionary layers visible in almost every street
• Howth - a fishing village on Dublin Bay, easily reached by DART for an afternoon of sea air and cliff walks after a morning tour