Dublin

Why Dublin works

Dublin's River Liffey splits the city into a northside and southside that locals still debate the merits of, crossed by bridges including the cast-iron Ha'penny Bridge, named for the toll once charged to walk it. Trinity College, founded in 1592, holds the Book of Kells — an illuminated 9th-century gospel manuscript considered a masterpiece of medieval art — in its Old Library, beneath the barrel-vaulted Long Room lined with 200,000 antique books. Dublin Castle, seat of British rule in Ireland for over 700 years until 1922, now hosts state functions and a museum tracing that fraught history, while Christ Church and St Patrick's cathedrals anchor the medieval quarter. The city's literary pedigree runs deep — Joyce, Wilde, Yeats and Beckett all have Dublin addresses and statues, and the Dublin Writers Museum and Trinity's literary walking tours trace it in detail. Temple Bar's cobbled lanes get the tourist attention, but Dubliners tend toward quieter pubs elsewhere in the city for a pint of Guinness, best had at the Guinness Storehouse itself, where the rooftop Gravity Bar offers a 360-degree city view with your first pour. St Stephen's Green and the Georgian squares of Merrion Square, with their brightly painted doors, round out a city built for walking.

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