Old City Heritage Walking Trail of Dublin

Dublin Tourism Centre to Dame Street
Numbers 1-10

The tour begins at the Dublin Tourism Centre in the former Saint Andrew’s Church on Suffolk Street. R and L indicate features to be observed on your right and left as you proceed.

Saint Andrew’s Church, at the start of the tour, was built in 1866, the last in a series of churches on or near this site. The original parish church of Saint Andrew, dating from the eleventh century, stood on the corner of Church Lane and College Green. The building was used after the Reformation as a mint and a stable. A new church, close to the present site, was built between 1670 and 1674. The church was totally rebuilt in 1800 and destroyed by fire in 1860 and replaced by the present building

On the corner with Grafton Street (L) is a statue of Molly Malone, the Dublin Street trader celebrated in a famous ballad. The imposing building behind the railings opposite is the residence of the Provost of Trinity College. Built in 1760, it has a magnificent interior.

Turn L. down Grafton Street to Trinity College.

Under the arch of Front Gate, what appears to be slate underfoot are oak setts, particularly chosen to absorb noise. This form of paving was a common feature in the forecourts of hospitals for this very reason. Among the most attractive aspects of Trinity College are its manicured lawns and well maintained buildings.

College Green, the broad street leading west from Trinity College, was known in Dublin’s earliest years as Hoggen Green, deriving its name from the Scandinavian word for mound. It was formerly dominated by the nearby Thingmote. The Green was common grazing land and a site of public executions until it was developed as a street in the seventeenth century under its present name.

Nearby, on the corner of Church Lane and Suffolk Street, once stood the Thingmote, a forty-foot high earthen mound built by the Vikings around 1000 AD as the location of their parliaments and assemblies. Henry II had a temporary palace built on the mound for his meeting in 1172 with the Irish Chiefs who were looking for his support against the Viking settlers. In medieval times, it served as a place for public entertainment and executions. In 1681-82 it was levelled by order of the Chief Justice and the earth was used to raise the level of Nassau Street to prevent flooding. Excavations in Suffolk Street unearthed weapons from the Norse period which are now in the National Museum of Ireland.

The Irish Parliament of the eighteenth century was largely controlled by the wealthy Protestant ascendancy. The prosperity and culture which they created lead to a growing feeling of independence from Britain, a feeling which led ultimately to the formation of the United Irishmen and the unsuccessful rising of 1798. On the 2nd of August 1800 the Irish Parliament was persuaded to vote itself out of existence with the passing of the Act of Union, which shifted the centre of power to London and ended a great era in Dublin’s history. The building was then sold to the Bank of Ireland with the condition that it should never be used for any political assembly. The Parliament consisted of two chambers, the House of Commons (now converted to the Banking Mall) and the House of Lords which survives intact to this day.

Upon entering the Chamber, one is immediately struck by the magnificent oak woodwork, the coffered ceiling and the exceptionally fine tapestries by John van Beaver which depict The Glorious Battle of the Boyne and the Glorious Defence of Londonderry. The beautiful chandelier was made in Dublin in 1788 and the original mantelpiece is still in place. All of these features are eloquent testimony to the fact that Dublin in the 18th century was a centre of the fine arts. The mace of the House of Commons was made in England in 1765 for the sum of £244.4s.11d.

Outside the bank, in the centre of College Green, stands a statue by John Foley of Henry Grattan, one of the greatest speakers in the Irish Parliament and an ardent opponent of the Act of Union. Foley also designed the statues of Goldsmith and Burke outside the front of Trinity College. Behind Grattan’s statue is a figure of Thomas Davis, the poet and leader of the Young Ireland revolutionary movement of the 1840s. Near here, on a site directly opposite Foster Place, stood Dublin’s oldest equestrian statue, a portrait of William III on his horse by Grinling Gibbons which was unveiled in 1701. Over the next two centuries it was subjected to endless abuse by a disrespectful citizenry, being mutilated, daubed with paint and tar, beheaded and generally insulted until 1928 when it was finally destroyed by being blown to fragments.

Foster Place (R) is possibly the most palatial cul-de-sac in Dublin, bounded on one side by the fine portico and screen wall of the Bank of Ireland, and on the other by the ornate front of the Allied Irish Bank. At the back is the entrance to the Bank’s armoury annexe, surmounted by a trophy of arms designed by Thomas Kirk. As you continue towards Anglesea Street, the building with a granite façade and large clock (R) was once the famous gentlemen’s gambling club, Daly’s. An underground passage beneath Foster Place connected it with the Parliament House, with whom it had many members in common. These included the great orators Grattan, Flood and Curran; the famous gambler Buck Whaley; and the infamous Buck English, who once shot a waiter at an inn and had him put on the bill at £50.

Anglesea Street (R), long established as an enclave of stockbrokers, leads the eye down to the river Liffey and Bachelor’s Walk. The street has some fine shop-fronts from the 1890s at Nos 10 (L) and 29/30 (R). The Dublin Stock Exchange on the right of this street is open to visitors, by appointment only.

Over the doorway of No 10 College Green (R) is a stone plaque, originally sited in the Commercial Buildings next door, depicting the Ouzel Galley. The ship in question was posted missing at sea in 1695 and insurance was duly paid. Five years later it returned, laden with booty, having escaped from the pirates who had captured it. The Ouzel Galley Society was formed to settle the disposal of the treasure and remained in existence until 1888 to deal with other mercantile disputes. The plaque decorated the society’s headquarters.

Most of this thoroughfare bears the hallmark of 19th century commerce with its stone banks and elaborate insurance buildings. The original appearance of the street, however, was very different and consisted of five-storey brick buildings with granite fronted shops at street level. No 38 (L) is an original example.

Dame Street begins at this point as a direct continuation of College Green. One of Dublin’s oldest streets, it connected the nunnery of St. Mary del Dame (founded in Viking times) with the Thingmote. Neither landmark now survives. The street was given its present proportions in the 1780s by the Wide Streets Commission.

Turn right into the Central Bank plaza. The handsome building front on the right hand side of the plaza is a reconstruction of the Dame Street front of the Commercial Buildings which formerly occupied this site.

Temple Bar Area. Cross the Central Bank Plaza and Cope Street into Crown Alley, behind the Bank. This network of narrow, cobbled eighteenth century streets has evolved in recent years as an inner-city Bohemia full of restaurants, theatres, cafes, arts centres, galleries and second hand shops selling books, clothes and bric-a-brac. The area is the focus of a major urban renewal project under which old buildings have been restored and upgraded, streets recobbled and new street lighting installed. Once famous for printers and clockmakers, it was full of merchants and craftsmen whose warehouses and old shops survive. Nos 1-4 Crown Alley (R) are an example of a 19th century warehouse attractively refurbished.

Crown Alley leads across Temple Bar through a narrow alley to Merchant’s Arch, designed as the Merchant’s Hall by Frederick Darley in 1821. Before the construction of Wellington Quay on the Liffey, a series of ferries plied the river. Directly ahead is the Ha’penny Bridge, one of Dublin’s most famous landmarks. Built in 1816 as the Wellington Bridge, it acquired its better known nickname from the halfpenny toll levied on all users of the bridge up to 1919. It also has been referred to as ‘the metal bridge’ and by its present official name, Liffey Bridge.

From the bottom of Crown Alley, turn left along Temple Bar, the narrow central street which has given its name to the area. Turn left again into Temple Lane which is an interesting relic of Dublin’s industrial past, crowded with old warehouses and still retaining its original surface of stone setts.

Cecilia Street (L) was the location of one of Dublin’s earliest theatres, the Crow Street Theatre, opened in 1730. The site is now occupied by Cecilia House, formerly the Catholic University Medial School from 1855 to 1931.

On the opposite side of Temple Lane is the Green Building (R), one of the more remarkable architectural projects carried out in the redevelopment of the Temple Bar area. Designed to be as energy efficient and environment friendly as possible, it is conspicuous for its wind turbines and solar panels. Also on this side is Dublin’s newest street, simply known as The Curved Street.

Since Dame Street was widened in the 1780s most of its buildings have been replaced or refronted in a variety of attractive styles. No 53, on the corner of Temple Lane (L) is one of the surviving originals and is a typical example of the work of the Wide Streets Commission. The oval stucco panels on the side of the building may have been used for advertising.

Turn right into Dame Street.

To the left is South Great George’s Street. The large red-brick pinnacled building (L) was designed in 1881 as the South City Markets. After a disastrous fire in 1892 it was rebuilt with some modifications by William H. Byrne, and now houses a variety of second-hand shops and market stalls. Bewleys, the famous coffee and tea merchants, opened their first shop in this street in 1894. South Great George’s Street and its continuation Aungier Street lead to Whitefriar Street Church about 1 km from Dame Street, where the remains of St. Valentine, patron saint of love, are kept. St. Valentine’s fame together with the fact that his feast falls on 14th February seems to have accounted for his association with the old customs observed on that date. There was a belief that birds mated on 14th February and that girls would chose their ‘Valentine’ sweetheart. Later came the custom of sending greeting cards (Valentines). The crocus which flowers around this time is St. Valentine’s flower. The casket containing his relics was given to the prior of the time, Fr. John Spratt, by Pope Gregory XVI in 1835.

The poet Thomas Moore was born at No 12 (L).

Return to the principal trail along Dame Street.

Eustace Street (R) dates from the late 17th century. No 6, on the left, formerly the meeting house of the Society of Friends (Quakers) now houses the Irish Film Centre; parts of the building date from the Quakers’ arrival in 1692. No 11 on the same side was formerly a Presbyterian church and was built about 1725. As the only surviving Presbyterian Church building of this period, it retains its original façade and now houses The Ark, a cultural centre designed specifically for use by children.

At the bottom of Eustace Street (R) is the 200-300 year old St. Winifred’s Well recently uncovered and restored during the renewal of the streets

Continue along Dame Street, noting the many fine examples of Victorian carved detail, such as at Nos 13-16 and 67-70. Just beyond Sycamore Street (R) is Dublin’s oldest surviving theatre, the Olympia, opened in 1870 by Dan Lowry as the Star of Erin Music Hall. The canopy over the footpath is a lovely example of Victorian glass and ironwork. The flamboyant interior decoration is typical of its time.

Almost beneath your feet at this point runs the River Poddle, a buried tributary of the Liffey which emerges beneath Wellington Quay. In medieval times the street here ran across a dam which gave its name to Dame Street. The river flowed down the route of Patrick Street and round the back of Dublin Castle where it winded into a large black pool (Irish dubh linn) from which the city derives its name.

Opposite the Olympia is Palace Street (L), bounded on one side by an elegant bank building designed by Sir Thomas Deane. The only other surviving building bears the name of Dublin’s oldest charity, the Sick and Indigent Roomkeepers’ Society, founded in 1790 to provide relief for the city’s thousands of poor. The society which had its headquarters here from 1851, moved recently and the house has now been restored as a private residence. This house was also the residence of the Emmet family from 1795 - 1805.

Between the lower Castle gate and City Hall is City Hall Park (L) opened in 1987. The paths are cobbled with old tramsetts which surfaced Dublin’s streets at the turn of the century, and the three statues, representing crafts in wood, metal and stone, originally stood on the Exhibition Palace in Earlsfort Terrace built for the Great Exhibition in 1872. A plaque here marks the birthplace of Dr. Barnardo, founder of a series of homes for orphaned children.

City Hall (L), with its giant portico, was built between 1769 and 1779, in what was the commercial centre of the city. Designed as the Royal Exchange by Thomas Cooley, the building was a meeting-point for Volunteer rallies in the 1780s and was subsequently used as a barrack and torture chamber by Government troops during the 1798 Rebellion. The present stone balustrade replaced an iron railing which collapsed in 1814 under the weight of a crowd watching a public whipping. Nine were killed and many more were injured. In 1852 the building was acquired by Dublin Corporation and is now the meeting place of the City Council.

In front of you as you mount the steps is a metal plate placed there in the late 1870s which displays exact standard measures in imperial and metric units. It was made by the Dublin firm of Yeates and Son who were the official makers of standard weights and measures for the entire British Empire at the time.

Visitors to City Hall may view the impressive entrance rotunda with its statues of Daniel O’Connell, Charles Lucas and Thomas Drummond. A mosaic in the floor depicts the Corporation’s coat of arms with its motto Obedientia Civium Urbis Felicitas (happy the city where citizens obey). The Corporation has been in existence since 1192 and Lord Mayors have been elected annually since 1665. Frescoes adorn the walls and there is a bench from the old College Green Parliament House.

From the top of the steps there is a fine view down Parliament Street, across the Liffey and along Capel Street, which together form one of the city’s great thoroughfares. The roadway outside City Hall was once the site of Dame Gate and the entrance to the medieval city.

Cork Hill to The Coombe Numbers 11-17

Turn left up Cork Hill, a wide cobbled area between City Hall and Newcomen’s Bank. The Bank was designed in 1781 by Thomas Ivory and now houses Dublin Corporation Offices.

Ahead is the gate to the Upper Castle Yard. The gate is surmounted by Van Nost’s Statue of Justice which, it was wryly noted, was placed with its back to the citizens of Dublin. The Guard Room (R) façade has been preserved and still bears the marks of bayonet sharpening around the doorway.

Indications are that there was a defensive rath or earthwork on this site even before the Viking fortress erected at the time of the original Norse settlement in 841. Strongbow, who led the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1170, also had a motte here on the site of the Record Tower. In 1204, at the command of King John, Dublin Castle was officially established with the building of a central circular keep (which survives, with subsequent modifications, as the Record Tower) and a curtain wall with massive towers. The Record Tower (previously and variously known as the Black Tower, the Gunner’s Tower and the Wardrobe Tower), together with the Bermingham Tower, which was added in the fourteenth century, are the only substantially remaining features of the original castle. At the entrance in Castle Street were two large towers (removed in the middle of the eighteenth century), with a drawbridge and portcullis.

Originally, the Castle functioned as an enclosure and a military centre to the city. It came under cannon-fire in 1534 during the rebellion of Silken Thomas, and was refurbished as a viceregal residence by Sir Henry Sydney in the 1560s. Towards the end of the seventeenth century the role of the Castle changed, and with it the structure. The destruction by fire in 1684 of the viceregal quarters opened the way for a total reconstruction of the building, initiated by Sir William Robinson. Gradually the old stone walls were replaced with brick. Reception rooms and offices were built and the Upper and Lower Castle Yards took on their present shape. The old Powder Tower at the Northeast corner was buried beneath the Chief Secretary’s offices, only to be revealed again during the recent building renovation works for Ireland’s presidency of the European Union. The splendid Bedford Tower, on the site of the west gate-tower, surmounts the Master of Ceremonies’ apartments designed by Thomas Ivory and built 1750-1761. It was from this building that the Irish Crown Jewels were mysteriously stolen in 1907. They have never been recovered.

The Chapel Royal, attached to the Record Tower, was designed by Francis Johnston and built between 1807 and 1814. It was restored in 1989.

From the mid-nineteenth century, the Castle housed the headquarters of the Dublin Metropolitan Police as well as the viceregal offices and State Apartments. It resisted an attack by insurgents in 1916 and was handed over in 1922 to the new Irish Government. The Upper Castle Yard, best known from James Malton’s celebrated view of 1792, contains the principal buildings of the post-medieval Castle which formerly housed the viceregal administration. The south range houses the magnificent State Apartments which were built as the residential quarters of the viceregal court and are now the venue of Ireland’s Presidencies of the European Union (EU), Presidential Inaugurations and State functions.The State Apartments, Undercroft and Chapel Royal are usually open to visitors. On some other occasions, the State Apartments only may be closed for State purposes. Guided tours are available.

The Chester Beatty Library and Gallery of Oriental Art, a priceless collection left to the nation by the millionaire Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, has recently been relocated from its original home in Ballsbridge to splendid new premises in Dublin Castle. The 22,000 items in the collection include: decorated manuscripts; paintings; snuff bottles and some of the earliest known Biblical papyri.

Leave the Castle by the Justice Gate and continue to the left along Castle Street

Turn left into Werburgh Street. Saint Werburgh’s Church (L) is of Anglo-Norman origin on the site of an earlier Viking foundation. After a major reconstruction in 1662, it was again rebuilt in 1715 to the design of Thomas Burgh, only to be gutted by fire in 1754 and yet again reconstructed in 1759. A magnificent 160 foot spire, added in 1768, was removed in 1810 because of its dangerous condition. Though somewhat dilapidated on the inside, it has a most attractive interior and it is open by appointment. A plaque outside records that the composer John Field (1782-1837), the creator of the nocturne, was baptised here. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, one of the principal figures in the 1798 rising, is buried in the vaults, and his captor, the notorious Major Sirr, is buried in the church-yard. Before the building of the Chapel Royal in 1807 St. Werburgh’s was the parish church of Dublin Castle.

Hoey’s Court (L) is the street where Jonathan Swift was born in 1667 (the house is no longer in existence). Directly opposite (R) is the site of Dublin’s first theatre opened by John Ogilby, the Master of the Revels, around 1637.

Turn left into Little Ship Street. This street (originally Pole or Poole Street, so called after the nearby Pool behind the castle) follows the line of the Poddle along the outside of the city wall and leads to a gate of Dublin Castle below the Bermingham Tower. It was at this point that in 1534 the Castle sustained its most serious assault at the hands of ‘Silken Thomas’ Fitzgerald, who raised a rebellion after hearing rumours of his father’s execution in the Tower of London. He was repulsed by cannon-fire, captured and brought to London for execution. Following Robert Emmet’s abortive rebellion in 1803 security on the west side of the Castle was stepped up, and a wall was built along the outside of the ditch. The Ship Street Gate and the entrance to the Castle Steps were built between 1806 and 1808. A plaque here commemorates the nearby birthplace of Jonathan Swift. Great Ship Street (originally Sheep Street) leads directly towards what is believed to be the original Dubhlinn, a pre-Viking monastic settlement whose boundaries coincided with the oval formed by Stephen Street, Whitefriar Street and Peter Row. Return along Little Ship Street to Bride Street.

Bride Street is named after St. Bride’s Church, another pre-Viking foundation which was demolished as part of the Iveagh Trust Redevelopment Scheme in the late nineteenth century. A large area between Patrick Street and Bride Street was cleared of tenements and rebuilt as a residential complex for the poor through the generosity of Edward Cecil Guinness, first Earl of Iveagh and a member of the famous brewing family. Different dates on entrances around the complex show the date of completion of the various blocks. Note the interesting series of plaques depicting scenes from Gulliver’s Travels, which adorn the buildings on the left.

Golden Lane (L) was the birthplace of John Field and there is a monument to him on the corner.

Turn right into Bull Alley.

To the right is the impressive façade of the building which completed the Iveagh Trust Scheme in 1915. It was designed as a children’s play centre and had three large halls, eleven classrooms and an outdoor playground. It now houses the Liberties Vocational School. In this part of the city the Guinness family were responsible for a major civic contribution to the urban renewal of the time. This can be seen in the restoration of St. Patrick's Cathedral, the art nouveau Iveagh Baths and the landscaping of St. Patrick’s Park.

From Bull Alley turn left into Patrick Street. The Poddle actually flowed down this street in the Middle Ages as far as St. Nicholas’ Gate, where it followed the line of the city wall. At the end of the nineteenth century St. Patrick’s Park was landscaped to afford a better vista of the cathedral. There is an entrance gate to the park near the cathedral, and just inside it is a stone marking the site of St. Patrick’s Well, which according to tradition was a miraculous spring which the saint himself caused to gush from the earth.

Up to medieval times the spring was credited with healing properties. On the far side of the park, near Bride Street, there is a sculpture, ‘Liberty Bell’ by Vivienne Roche, and a series of panels honouring eight great Dublin writers - Swift, Mangan, Wilde, Shaw, Yeats, O’Casey, Joyce and Beckett. There is a fine oil painting of St. Patrick’s Close, Dublin by Walter Osborne in the National Gallery depicting this area as it would have looked a century ago.

From Patrick Street, turn left into St. Patrick’s Close to enter St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Cathedral stands on perhaps the oldest Christian site in Dublin. A church had stood here since the fifth century and the site was always associated with St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, who had baptised converts here at his well. Significantly, it stood near the junction of six ancient routes at the site known as Cross Poddle. In 1190 John Comyn, an Englishman who succeeded Lawrence O’Toole as Archbishop of Dublin, rebuilt the church in stone and founded it as a Collegiate Church. This church was elevated to the status of cathedral in 1213 by Comyn’s successor, Henry de Loundres, and was subsequently rebuilt in its present form between 1220 and 1250. Essentially the difference between this cathedral and Christchurch, only a quarter of a mile away, is that St. Patrick’s was outside the city walls and therefore not subject to the same influence and jurisdiction. Broadly speaking, Christchurch was associated with the Government while St. Patrick’s was the cathedral of the people.

The great west tower with its prominent clock (depicted in one of Malton’s prints of Dublin) was rebuilt by Archbishop Minot in 1370 after a fire and is 43 metres high, with a 31 metre spire which was added in 1749. It housed the largest ringing peal of bells in Ireland.

St. Patrick’s was by the mid-19th century in a bad state of repair and, like Christchurch around the same time, owed its preservation to the generosity of drink merchants. An extensive programme of restoration was carried out in 1864 at the expense of Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness. A commemorative statue may be seen outside the building to the right of the entrance.

The most celebrated figure associated with the cathedral is Jonathan Swift, author of A Tale of a Tub, Gulliver’s Travels, A Modest Proposal and other satires, who was Dean here from 1713 to 1745. His bust and famous epitaph are at the west end of the nave, close to the brass plate in the floor which marks his grave beside his beloved ‘Stella’ (Esther Johnson). His pulpit and chair and other belongings are on display in the north transept together with a collection of his works, and in the south transept is the memorial which he erected to his servant Alexander McGee who died at the age of 29.

In the west end of the nave to the left of the entrance is the huge and elaborate Boyle family memorial erected by Richard Boyle, first Earl of Cork, in the early 17th century. His sons Robert, the famous philosopher and chemist, is one of the figures portrayed on it. Opposite the entrance is displayed the door of the medieval Chapter House. In 1492, during the feud between the two great ruling families of Ireland, the Butlers of Ormonde and the Fitzgeralds of Kildare, the Earl of Ormonde sought refuge in the chapter house. The Earl of Kildare cut a hole in the door (which may be seen to this day) and reached through to shake his enemy’s hand and make peace.

The Order of the Knights of St. Patrick, founded in 1783 and now defunct, had its chapel here, and their banners and coats of arms may be seen over their carved stalls in the choir at the east end of the cathedral. The great organ in the north side of the choir was built by Henry Willis & Sons in 1902 and is the largest and most powerful in Ireland.

Around the walls are monuments to such notables as the Emmet family, the blind harper Turlough O’Carolan, the writers Samuel Lover and Charles Wolfe, and Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland. Leaving the Cathedral, turn left along St. Patrick’s Close.

Marsh's Library (L) was built in 1701 by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh to the design of Sir William Robinson, architect of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham and the renovations to Dublin Castle. It was the first public library in Ireland. The interior, a magnificent example of a seventeenth century scholar’s library, remains unchanged since it was built, with its dark oak bookcases and three wired cages into which readers were locked with rare books. Many of the books were exceptionally rare and valuable even in Marsh’s time and some of them were actually chained to the shelves. The four principal collections amount to about 25,000 books dating mainly from the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries.

The Edward Stillingfleet collection, which Marsh acquired in 1705, comprises nearly 10,000 books, some of them printed by the earliest English printers. The Library also contains about three hundred manuscripts, of which the most important is a volume of the Lives of the Irish Saints, dating from 1400. Dean Swift made great use of the Library, and James Joyce, whose signature is also on the records, came here to ‘read the fading prophecies of Joachim Abbas’. The Library, which is still used by scholars, holds regular exhibitions. It also has a working bindery to improve the conservation of the collection. The prolific rosemary bush by the top of the steps outside is a reminder of the days when herbs were grown not only for medicinal use but also to cover ubiquitous medieval odours.

At the corner with Kevin Street (L) is the ancient Episcopal Palace of St. Sepulchre, now occupied by a police station which retains some of the original structure and its ornamental gateway (visible on Kevin Street). The original palace was built at the end of the twelfth century by Archbishop Comyn. The extensive lands round about, designated by royal charter the Liberty of Saint Sepulchre, were governed from the palace. After the Reformation, the palace was taken over to be the official residence of the Lord Deputy until Dublin Castle was restored for the purpose and the palace reverted to Protestant archbishops, who moved to a more fashionable part of town in the eighteenth century. In the 1830s it became the principal station of the new Dublin Metropolitan Police.

From St. Patrick’s Close turn R. along Kevin Street. To the right is the Deanery or residence of the Deans of Saint Patrick’s. The present building dates from the mid-nineteenth century after fire destroyed the house where Swift had lived and worked. On the other side of Kevin Street is an area known as The Cabbage Garden, formerly a Huguenot graveyard. The Huguenots, exiled from France in 1685 for their religion, came here in vast numbers and many settled in this part of the city, bringing with them their skill in weaving. We pass an example of the high gabled ‘Dutch Billy’ house (R) which was common in Dublin at the beginning of the 18th century.

The point where Kevin Street, Dean Street and Patrick Street meet was formerly known as Cross Poddle and was an important junction of trade routes from the very earliest times.

Ahead lies the Coombe. The area was the heart of the weaving trade and the Weavers’ Guildhall formerly stood on this street. Thousands of Dubliners have been born in the Coombe since 1826 when its famous maternity hospital was founded by Mrs. Margaret Boyle. A wealthy widow, Mrs. Boyle was touched by the case of a woman who died in childbirth on the corner of Thomas Street on her way to the Rotunda at the far side of the city.

Cross to Dean Street and then turn right into Francis Street.

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Francis Street to Winetavern Street
Numbers 18-28

A Mecca for all those interested in antiques and craftsmanship, this street, though somewhat haphazard in appearance, is well worth a closer look. Among the specialist antique dealers, you will find those who sell pine furniture, cast iron fireplaces, garden statuary, enamel signs, old advertisements and lamps. Craftsmen here will restore marble fireplaces, upholster chairs, or repair and clean brasswork.

Halfway along the street on the right is the church of St. Nicholas of Myra, a handsome neo-classical structure built in the 1830s and celebrating Catholic emancipation in Ireland. There is a stained glass window in the nuptial chapel by the celebrated Harry Clarke.

Further up the street is the attractive Iveagh Market, (R) a Victorian building of great quality. Note the wonderful carved heads of Moors and oriental traders which adorn the keystones of the arches. The winking and grinning face on the side is said to be that of Lord Iveagh. The smell of brewing hops, not unlike burnt coffee, occasionally wafts this way from his family business in the Guinness brewery.

The Tivoli (L) was built in 1936 as a cinema, which ‘went dark’ in the 1970s and was reopened in 1987 as a theatre. It is one of the most modern and technologically sophisticated theatres in Dublin.

TRAIL EXTENSION TO GUINNESS BREWERY

The church of SS. Augustine and John (R), popularly known as St. John’s Lane Church, stands on the site of the ancient Abbey of St. John which in medieval times provided a hospital for incurables. An Augustinian community was established there in 1704 and enlarged its chapel into a church in 1781. The present elaborate building, designed by Edward Welby Pugin and said to have been praised by Ruskin, was constructed from 1862 to 1895. The statues of the apostles in the niches of the spire were sculpted by James Pearse, father of the Pearse brothers who were executed in 1916. There are some fine examples of stained glass from the Harry Clarke Studio in the church and the impressive Victorian interior includes some striking ironwork in the chapel of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

On the left, past Vicar Street, was the site of the public washing place in the Middle Ages. A stream ran alongside the street and crossed it at this point.

The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) (R) occupies the former Power’s Distillery which was converted for the purpose when the NCAD moved here in 1980. The distillery was founded here in 1791 by James Power and once covered an 11 acre site between Thomas Street and the Liffey. Three copper pot stills, the earliest dating from the end of the 19th century, still stand in an area of the college known as Red Square, and two beam engines also survive. Whiskey production ceased here in 1976 when Powers transferred to Midleton in Cork.

Continue past Meath Street (L) and the site of the medieval Horse Market beside it. On the next corner is St. Catherine’s Church (L) which dates from 1172 and was completely rebuilt by John Smyth between 1760 and 1769. A spire was included in the plan but was never erected due to lack of money. Its classical façade is one of the finest in Dublin. The decline of its congregation led to the church’s closure in 1966 and it is now owned by Dublin Corporation.

A memorial outside the church records that Robert Emmet was executed in front of the building on 20th September 1803 after his ill-conceived rebellion ended in failure. Emmet and his men gathered here to march on the Castle but only got as far as the corner of Francis Street before breaking up in confusion.

Continue along Thomas Street towards St. James’s Gate. Turn left into Crane Street to visit the Guinness Brewery.

Guinness is one of Dublin’s greatest success stories. In 1759 Arthur Guinness took over a small disused brewery here, leased it for nine thousand years at £45 per year, and after a short period brewing ale began brewing porter, a dark beer containing roasted barley. It very quickly achieved widespread popularity throughout Ireland and also captured a share of the market in Britain. A stronger brew called extra stout or, more familiarly, just ‘stout’ was later developed and is now consumed around the world at the rate of over seven million glasses each day. By the end of the nineteenth century the brewery had grown from its original site of four acres, to be the largest in the world. It is still the largest brewery in Europe, now covering some sixty acres, and exports more beer than any other single brewery anywhere. The first export shipment of Guinness left Dublin in 1769.

Crane Street leads to the brewery visitor centre and to the brewery museum in the old Hop Store which has been converted into a major display centre.

After your visit to the brewery, return along Thomas Street to continue the trail.

Opposite Francis Street is Saint Augustine Street (L) which follows the line of a prehistoric route to the river and the site of Ath Cliath, the Ford of the Hurdles which gave Dublin its ancient name.

Thomas Street continues into Cornmarket, which crosses the line of the old Town ditch and meets the city walls again at Newgate (a gate was built here in 1177). A portion of the wall (R) still stands here.

Bridge Street (l) leads down to the Brazen Head, Dublin’s oldest pub. The inn was established in 1668 and is said to have been built on the site of an earlier inn going back to the twelfth or thirteenth century. It was the meeting place of the leaders of the United Irishmen who planned the Rebellion of 1798. The upper end of Bridge Street was added later and occupies the site of the medieval New Hall market.

St. Audoen’s Church of Ireland church (L) is one of the most ancient in Dublin, and comparatively little of its original fabric has been replaced in the course of restoration. A Norman church dedicated to St. Ouen was built here in 1190 to replace the original Celtic church of. St. Columcille. The tower at the back hangs three bells made in 1423 which are said to be the oldest in Ireland. In the porch is an early Christian gravestone known as the ‘Lucky Stone’ which has been kept at the church since before 1309 and which is the subject of many strange stories. The misspelling ‘St. Audeon’s’ is now so common as to be practically an accepted usage.

St. Audoen’s churchyard has now been turned into a fine park bounded by a restored section of the old city walls. A set of steps leads down to St. Audoen’s Arch, the only surviving gateway of the old city. The gate and surrounding walls were restored in the 1880s.

Next to old St. Audoen’s is St. Audoen’s Roman Catholic Church, built between 1841 and 1847 with an attractive portico added in 1898. Beside the front door two giant clam shells, brought back from a Pacific voyage, service as holy water containers. Access to the fine interior is by a side door.

Cross High Street to the entrance of Back Lane, opposite old St. Audoen’s. Back Lane dates from 1610 and was the location of a Jesuit university and chapel in 1627. The Tailors Hall (L) with its large limestone gate and broken pediment, now occupies that site and was built - possibly incorporating parts of the older building - around 1706. The last surviving guild hall in Dublin, it was built for the Guild of Tailors but was also used by other guilds - Hosiers, Tanners, Saddlers and Barber-surgeons. These guilds were organisations set up in the Middle Ages to represent the interest of craftsmen and traders. The Tailors’ Guild was founded in 1418. The hall is best known for the meetings organised here in 1792 by the Catholic Committee with the object of securing relief from the remaining penal laws. The sessions, which became known as the ‘Back Lane Parliament’, were attended by delegates from all over Ireland, and Wolfe Tone was their secretary. The United Irishmen also met here. After the abolition of the guilds in 1841, the building was used variously by a school, by the mission to the Liberties and by the Legion of Mary. Since 1983 it has been the headquarters of An Taisce (the National Trust for Ireland). Visitors may see the magnificent Great Hall with its fine windows and an elegant musicians’ gallery; the beautiful staircase dating from 1706; the Master’s Dining Room; and the Lower Hall with its stone walls and heavy-beamed ceiling.

In recent years a considerable amount of urban renewal has taken place in the area around Tailor’s Hall, an interesting example of which is the market converted from a former shoe factory on the opposite side of Back Lane.

Return to High Street, which was one of Dublin’s principal streets in the Middle Ages. An extensive archaeological ‘dig’ here in the late 1960s and early 1970s revealed evidence- in the form of huge deposits of leather scraps and shoe soles - that High Street was the centre of the Dublin leather working business in the thirteenth century. Conveniently it leads directly into the former Skinner’s Row (now Christchurch Place) where hides were tanned and prepared.

Opposite Nicholas Street is Christchurch Place with the picturesque bridge linking the Cathedral and Synod Hall. The bridge and Synod Hall were added by G.E. Street during his restoration of the Cathedral. Now housed in the Synod Hall is Dvblinia. a recreation of the medieval city from the coming of the Normans in 1170 to the Reformation and the closure of the monasteries in 1540. It includes: a scale model of the old city; life size reconstructions and a collection of original archaeological artefacts.

Winetavern Street, as its name suggests, was the medieval drinking centre and the home of related trades such as caskmaking. Its reputation for taverns and ale houses lasted for over seven hundred years until well into the nineteenth century. On the quayside at the bottom of the street stood Prickett’s Tower, a square stone building where in 1551 the first book to be printed in Ireland was published - an edition of the Book of Common Prayer. Dublin’s oldest firm, Rathborne’s the Candlemakers, was established in Winetavern Street in 1488.

Christchurch Place to Parliament Street
Numbers 29-33

Continue towards Christchurch Cathedral, on the corner of Nicholas Street and Christchurch Place (R) is the site of the old Tholsel, originally established here in 1308 beside the market cross. A predecessor of City Hall, it was the place where city customs were paid, where the Dublin Assembly met and the mayor had his court. It was redesigned between 1678 and 1683 and the fine stone building was illustrated by James Malton in his famous series of views of great Dublin buildings in the late eighteenth century. Demolished in 1806, it is the only building in the series which no longer survives. Two statues which stood in its façade are now in the crypt of Christchurch Cathedral.

Christ Church Cathedral (L), the Cathedral of the diocese of Dublin, was built originally around 1038 for Sitric Silkenbeard, the Norse king of Dublin. This wooden structure was rebuilt in stone by the Anglo-Normans between 1173 and 1220. For centuries the Cathedral was the place of worship of the British establishment in Ireland. Four Irish kings were knighted and entertained here by Richard II in 1395, and it was here that the pretender Lambert Simnel was crowned Edward VI of England on 24th May 1487. The south arcade and most of the west front were destroyed when the roof collapsed in 1562 and had to be rebuilt. The cloisters were taken over by shops and the crypt given over to ‘tippling rooms for beer, wine and tobacco’. In 1821 Skinner’s Row was widened and the cathedral shown off to better advantage. It was, however, in poor condition and urgently needed repairs. Thanks to the munificence of the Dublin whiskey distiller Henry Roe these were carried out in 1871 by the architect G.E. Street, who remodelled the entire building in Gothic style.

Among the curiosities in the cathedral is the tomb of Strongbow, the Earl of Pembroke. The tomb was an important spot in days gone by for the conclusion of sales and business deals, so much so that when the original tomb was destroyed by the fall of the roof in 1562 the effigy of a now unknown knight was brought in to replace it. In St. Laud’s chapel at the east end of the cathedral the heart of St. Lawrence O’Toole, who was Archbishop of Dublin at the time of Strongbow’s invasion, is preserved in a metal casket. Note the beautiful variety of tiles in the cathedral.

Below the cathedral is the crypt, which is believed to date from Strongbow’s time and is Dublin’s oldest surviving building. Here are displayed the official ancient Stocks of the Liberty of Christchurch, made in 1670, in which offenders were exposed to public ridicule. Two statues, possibly of Charles II and James II, formerly stood on the Tholsel on the other side of Skinner’s Row. In a glass case are the mummified bodies of a cat and rat which were found lodged in an organ pipe during restoration. The rat was trapped in the pipe when the cat, apparently in hot pursuit, got jammed six inches away from its prey.

Outside the Cathedral are the excavated remains of part of the Augustinian priory which was formerly attached to it.

Return to Christchurch Place and bear left towards Fishamble Street. Lord Edward Street (R), named after Lord Edward Fitzgerald, was created in 1892 to connect College Green and Dame Street with the old city and relieve traffic congestion.

St. John’s Lane (L), leading behind the cathedral to Winetavern Street, has recently been recobbled with stone setts to recreate the street surface that was in place two hundred years ago.

Fishamble Street dates back to Viking times and was originally, as the name suggests the home of Dublin’s fish market. In later years it was a fashionable area and was the birthplace of the great scholar Archbishop Ussher, the poet James Clarence Mangan and the great orator Henry Grattan.

On the left hand side of Fishamble Street, the area between Christchurch Cathedral and Wood Quay (now occupied by the Civic Offices) is of immense historic and archaeological interest. It was here that the Viking settlement of Dublin had its beginnings in or around the year 841. Protected by a stronghold where Dublin Castle is now, a thriving community grew here by the riverside. A stockade was built with an earthen bank which by 1100 had been strengthened with a stone wall. Originally the shoreline was near the junction with Essex Street West and the street ended in a slipway. Excavations on Wood Quay in the 1970s uncovered hundreds of fascinating artefacts - coins, bone combs, swords, pottery, household implements and leatherwork - which are displayed in the National Museum, as well as the remnants of wattle houses and a large portion of the original city wall (which has been reconstructed beneath the Civic Offices.

An ironworks (R) in the angle of the street occupies the site of the Music Hall opened in 1741. A plaque on the adjoining period house records that the first performance of Handel’s famous oratorio, the Messiah, was given here on 13th April 1742. The charity event attracted more than seven hundred people, the cream of Dublin cultural society, and the crowd was so great that gentlemen were asked to come without swords and ladies to leave the hoops out of their skirts. A noted clergyman, Dr. Delany, was so moved by the singing of Mrs. Cibber, one of the soloists, that he rose and cried ‘Woman, for this, be all thy sins forgiven!’.

On the corner of Essex Street West (R) stands the oldest surviving private residence in Dublin, believed to date from the 17th century. The house had to be shored up with timber after the demolition of neighbouring buildings in the 1980s.

Fishamble Street meets the river at Wood Quay, so named after the strong wooden supports behind which land was reclaimed for the establishment of a quayside around the year 1200.

Turn right into Essex Quay.

Exchange Street Lower (R) was formerly known as the Blind Quay. On the right hand side is the former Franciscan church of SS. Michael and John with its gothic interior. Built in 1815 to the designs of J. Taylor, it was the oldest Roman Catholic church in Dublin. The last Mass said here was in April 1990. The building incorporates the remains of one of Dublin’s most notable playhouses, the Smock Alley theatre built by John Ogilby in 1661. Despite the disastrous collapse of the gallery during a performance, resulting in several deaths, the theatre survived to launch the careers of Peg Woffington, Edmund Kean and the playwright George Farquhar among others. It closed in the 1790s.

The church has now been converted to house Dublin's Viking Adventure in which the sights, sounds and even smells of Viking Dublin are accurately recreated, with guiding by ’real’ Vikings.

Also included is a display of artefacts from the National Museum collection, unearthed during the Wood Quay excavations which provided the detailed, historical information for this project.

Between the church and the quay is a sculpture in the shape of a longship, commemorating the area’s Viking associations.

Sunlight Chambers (R), on the corner with Essex Quay, was built around 1900 for a soap company and is decorated with an unusual terracotta frieze depicting the manufacture and uses of soap. To get a better view, cross the riverwall where you can also take in the full extent of typical quayside buildings.

Grattan Bridge, at the bottom of Parliament Street, was built under the name of Essex Bridge in 1678 by Sir Humphrey Jervis, who was developing land on the opposite side of the river and built Capel Street and the bridge to connect his properties advantageously to the Castle. The stones for the bridge were taken from the remains of St. Mary’s Abbey on the north side of the river. In 1753 the bridge was rebuilt in its present form, modelled on Westminster Bridge in London.

Before the building of the bridge, this area at the mouth of the Poddle was a harbour, which was filled in 1625. From the east parapet of the bridge it is possible to see the mouth of the Poddle, emerging from an arched conduit in the wall below Wellington Quay. Just above here was Dublin’s earliest Custom House which stood on the site of what is now the Clarence Hotel.

Turn right into

Parliament Street. Another entrance in the old city walls - Essex Gate - is on the right. On the corner of Essex Gate (R) is the tobacco and snuff warehouse of Lundy Foot and Company, a famous firm which moved here from Blind Quay in 1774. Their initials may still be seen embossed on the wall.

Essex Street East (L) is the continuation of Temple Bar. On the right hand side of Essex Street can be seen the gilded dolphin on the corner of the former Dolphin Hotel, a gothic-style establishment designed in the 1870s by J.J. O’Callaghan and much frequented in its day by lawyers and the racing fraternity. It was converted to offices in 1979.

On the left-hand side of Parliament Street at No 4 is the oldest shop in Dublin, occupied since the seventeenth century by a firm of cutlers who in former days were swordmakers to Dublin Castle. Some of their swords are on display.

At the top of the street turn left to return to the starting point of the tour.

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