2-Hour Historical Walking Tour from Dublin

About This Tour

This is more than just a ‘sightseeing tour’ (but there’s plenty to see) but an in-depth presentation of the main features of Irish history—the English conquest, the influences of the American and French Revolutions, the Great Hunger, the struggle for independence, the Northern Ireland Peace Process, Brexit—by a history postgraduate.

What’s Included

• Included is the expertise of our guides who are all history postgraduates.

What’s Not Included

• Entry to the Book of Kells.

Itinerary

1. Tours leave from the Grattan statue, College Green, opposite Trinity College front gate and enter the campus where we outline its history as Ireland’s oldest university (1592) & its most valuable artefact, the Book of Kells, an 8th century manuscript of the four Gospels, written in Latin. (20 min)
2. Originally Ireland’s colonial parliament, built in 1729, abolished by the Act of Union in 1800, symbolic of ‘Protestant Ascendancy’, particularly in the 18th century & of the period’s neo-classical architecture. (10 min)
3. Originally ear-marked for demolition, this area of narrow streets was repurposed as ‘Dublin’s Cultural Quarter’ in the 1990s. (10 min)
4. Wood Quay was the site of extensive archaeological excavation in the 1980s of the Viking city, who had founded the city in AD 840. (10 min)
5. Ireland’s legal headquarters, where a Civil War started in June 1922, between those who supported, and those who opposed, the Treaty of December 1921, which had brought to an end the War of Independence 1919-21. (20 min)
6. Dublin’s oldest cathedral (1030), rebuilt in stone in the 1170s by Strongbow, who was central to the original English invasion of the 1170s. (10 min)
7. Inside is a statue of Daniel O’Connell, Dublin’s first Catholic Lord Mayor (1840). He led a successful campaign for Catholic Emancipation (1829), the end of all anti-Catholic laws, hence he’s known as ‘The Liberator’. (10 min)
8. Originally built by (‘Bad’) King John in 1204, it was the seat of British administration until 1922. Also the location of the Dubh Linn (Black Pool), from which Dublin gets its name. (10 min)

Meeting point: Tours leave from the Grattan statue, College Green, opposite Trinity College front gate.

Good to Know

• Wheelchair accessible
• Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
• Service animals allowed
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap

Maximum group size: 25 travelers. Available in: en.