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The Houses of Guinness Walking Tour
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From €30 per person
Most people visit Dublin and go straight to the Storehouse. This tour does something different: it takes you through the actual streets, squares, and buildings where the Guinness family lived, worked, and shaped the city around them. Not the brewery, but the real residential and social history behind the dynasty — the houses, the church, the civic roles, the family drama.
If you’ve watched the House of Guinness TV series, this is where the story gets grounded in real places. If you haven’t, your guide will fill in the background as you go.
The tour finishes in what was originally St Mary’s Church on Jervis Street — the very spot where Arthur Guinness, founder of the brewery, married Olivia Whitmore in 1761. A pint of Guinness is included in your ticket price to mark the occasion.
Worth knowing before you book: this tour does not include a visit to the Guinness Brewery, which sits a bit outside the city centre. If you’d like to combine the family history walk with a brewery visit, your guide can point you in the right direction or a private alternative can be arranged.
Meeting point: On the footpath outside The Mansion House (the Lord Mayor’s residence), Dawson Street, Dublin 2
The tour is wheelchair accessible throughout the route. Infants can travel in a pram or stroller. Service animals are welcome. Public transport is available nearby. Groups are capped at 16 people. The tour runs in English. Lunch is not included.
Dawson Street is a good place to start exploring before the tour begins. There’s a cluster of decent independent bookshops and cafes on the street, so if you arrive early you can browse without feeling like you’re killing time. St Anne’s Church just off the street is also worth a quick look if it’s open — it’s one of the quieter Georgian churches in the city centre.
The Guinness family had an enormous impact on Dublin’s built environment. Benjamin Lee Guinness paid for the restoration of St Patrick’s Cathedral in the 1860s when it was in serious disrepair, and Arthur Edward Guinness funded St Anne’s on Dawson Street. Your guide will bring these connections to life as you walk, so it’s worth keeping that thread in mind as you pass the buildings.
Finish your pint slowly and ask your guide about the area around the former St Mary’s Church. Jervis Street is in the heart of the north city centre, and the guide tends to know the neighbourhood well — which is handy if you want lunch or want to know what’s worth seeing nearby before heading back.
This tour pairs well with a visit to the Chester Beatty Library. It’s one of Dublin’s genuinely great museums and it’s free to enter. It sits beside Dublin Castle, about a 15-minute walk from the Mansion House. The Islamic, East Asian, and European manuscript collections are extraordinary and it’s rarely as crowded as you’d expect for a collection of that quality.
Groups are capped at 16 people. That’s still a workable size for a walking tour, but if you’re a large family or group it’s worth booking early to make sure you’re all on the same departure.