Temple Bar
Cobbles, red façades and live music at any hour.
Duration
1 hr – 2 hrs 30 min
Best time
Early evening
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
Temple Bar is the district of cobbled lanes between the Liffey and Dame Street, saved from demolition in the 1980s: the bus company had bought the buildings for a terminus and let them cheaply in the meantime. Artists and small shops moved in, and the scheme was dropped.
It has become heavily touristed and a pint costs several euros more than elsewhere in the city. The live music is real and free, every day and at all hours — and that is what still makes it worth a look.
Getting there
Between the Ha'penny Bridge and Dame Street, south of the Liffey. Ten minutes on foot from O'Connell Street.
What to bring
- Walking shoes
Rules on site
The pubs here charge several euros more for a pint than those on Camden Street or Capel Street, ten minutes away. On match weekends or stag weekends the lanes become unwalkable.
Other places in Dublin
Trinity College and the Book of KellsA ninth-century illuminated manuscript, and the Long Room with its two hundred thousand volumes.
Guinness StorehouseSeven floors wrapped around a giant pint, with a rooftop bar at the top.
Cliffs of MoherTwo hundred and fourteen metres of cliff above the Atlantic, three hours west.
Phoenix ParkSeven hundred hectares — twice Central Park — with a free-roaming herd of deer.