← All Ireland tours via Viator · From €7 · 1 hour 
A Self-Guided Stroll Along Dún Laoghaire's East Pier
6 traveller reviews Booked securely via Viator
Check availability & prices →
From €7 per person
Dún Laoghaire looks calm on the surface - but there’s a lot packed into this stretch of coastline. This self-guided audio tour, written and narrated by Dublin-native Jack Redmond, takes you from St Michael’s Church on Marine Road all the way out to the East Pier Lighthouse, where Dublin Bay opens up in front of you.
You’ll trace how the town shifted from a small fishing village into one of Ireland’s most important Victorian ports. Along the way you’ll pass the Pavilion Theatre, the King George IV Monument, and the RMS Leinster Memorial, which marks one of Ireland’s deadliest maritime disasters - a troopship sunk in World War I with the loss of over 500 lives. You’ll also walk “the Metals,” the old trackbed of a horse-drawn railway that once hauled granite from the quarry to build the harbour itself.
Near the end, the route brings you to the Carlisle Pier, a Forgotten Irish Memorial, the East Pier Bandstand Sun Shelter, a Crimean War cannon carrying a Romanov eagle motif (yes, a Russian cannon that ended up here), and finally the Roger Casement Statue. Jack connects all of it - the regal architecture, the stories of rebellion, the emigrant memory - in a way that makes the pier feel different once you’ve walked it.
Once you book, you’ll receive a unique code and instructions to download the tour via the VoiceMap app. When you reach the starting point, just tap start.
Meeting point: Outside the main entrance to St Michael’s Church on Marine Road, next to George’s Street. The church sits at the far end of Marine Road from the harbour, the main DART station, and the main bus stops.
Download before you leave home. The VoiceMap app works offline, so once you’ve entered your code and downloaded the tour, you don’t need a mobile signal on the pier. That said, Dún Laoghaire has decent coverage throughout, so it’s really just peace of mind.
Go on a weekday morning if you can. The pier gets busy on sunny weekends, especially in summer, and it’s a much quieter experience with Jack’s narration when you’re not dodging joggers and dog walkers. The light on Dublin Bay in the morning is genuinely lovely.
Bring a jacket even in summer. The pier stretches over a kilometre into open water, and the wind picks up quickly once you leave the shelter of the town. Locals know this. Visitors sometimes learn it the hard way.
The Roger Casement Statue is a good place to linger. Once the tour finishes, the seafront around Dún Laoghaire town has several good cafes within a few minutes’ walk. The People’s Park on Moran Park is a short stroll inland and worth it if you want somewhere to sit after the walk.
If you’re coming by DART, you’re in the right place. The train drops you almost directly at the start of Marine Road. It’s one of the most straightforward ways to arrive, and it means you can relax rather than worry about parking near the pier on a busy day.