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Harbour Walk & Coastal Boat Tour COMBO - PRIVATE GROUP
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From €500 per person
Howth rewards a slow visit with someone who knows it well. This three-hour private combination - a harbour walk followed by a coastal boat trip - packs roughly 3,000 years of history into one of the most beautiful stretches of the Dublin coastline.
Your guide is a passionate local who grew up knowing these piers, paths, and stories. They’ll walk you through the Viking and Norman footprints that shaped the village, tell you about King Sitric’s abbey built in 1042, show you where the Asgard came in during the famous Howth Gun Running that helped arm the 1916 Rising, and point out the Martello Towers that went up during the Napoleonic era when invasion felt genuinely close. Captain William Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty has a Howth connection. A young Winston Churchill does too. And U2 eventually made their home here among the artists and poets who had always found their way to this headland.
Once the walk wraps up, you’re on the water. The boat takes you around Ireland’s Eye - an offshore island with secret beaches, sea caves, coves, and clifftops that are 500 million years old. You’ll spot the local seal colony and a parade of seabirds: gannets, guillemots, cormorants, kittiwakes, and puffins. Music plays and blankets are provided for the cruise along the Howth cliffs waterline.
Because this is private, the pace and focus are yours to set.
Meet at The Ready Boat Pillar on Harbour Road, across the road from Howth Market - 50 metres from the DART station.
Take the DART out from the city. The coastal rail line from Connolly or Pearse stations to Howth takes about 35 minutes and the views as you come around the bay are genuinely lovely. You pull into Howth village right at the harbour, which puts you within two minutes of the meeting point. It’s a much nicer approach than sitting in traffic.
The fish and chips in Howth are worth the queue. After your tour, the harbour is lined with seafood spots ranging from chippy takeaways to sit-down restaurants. Beshoff Bros and Aqua are local favourites, and you’re right beside them when the tour wraps. If you’re visiting on a weekend, Howth Market runs on the pier and it’s worth a wander before you head back to the city.
Wrap up warmer than you think you need to. Even in summer, the boat trip along the Howth cliffs can be brisk. Blankets are provided on board, but a windproof layer makes the experience a lot more comfortable, particularly on the open water sections around Ireland’s Eye.
Look out for the seals near the West Pier. Before the boat trip even starts, you can often spot seals hauled out on the rocks around the harbour entrance. Your guide will point them out, but if you’re early to the meeting point it’s worth a look along the pier on your way in.
Birdwatchers should mention it to the guide. Ireland’s Eye hosts one of the more impressive seabird colonies on the east coast. If you have binoculars or a particular interest in spotting puffins, gannets, or anything else, let your guide know and they can time the boat trip to give you the best view of the nesting ledges.