Dublin - Temple Bar Travel Guides | Dublin | Sub Regions | Dublin - Temple Bar

Bordered by Dame Street to the south and the river Liffey to the north, Temple Bar takes its name from Sir William Temple, who in the 17th century had the bright idea of draining the wide marshy river banks that sloped down to the Liffey. In the years that followed, Temple Bar became the commercial heart of the city: boats brought goods into the district’s warehouses, from where a network of roads carried them across the country. However, when the Custom House was built downriver in the late 18th century, the docks and warehouses followed and Temple Bar declined.

Until the 1980s Temple Bar remained a run-down area of the city, waiting to be demolished for a new bus station. Now, this regenerated district is the pulsing heart of tourist Dublin. The smell of river mud mingles in the air with radicchio salad, expensive olive oil, Guinness and boxty, while the cobbled streets and designer alleyways are alive with the sounds of raucous, drunken laughter and Irish music.

Temple Bar is a fun place to be, especially at night and in the summer when food, drink, music and crowds of people all combine to create a lively street vibe. Second-hand clothes shops, nifty galleries (the Gallery of Photography and the National Photographic Archive are the most notable), a glut of restaurants to suit most budgets, plenty of stylish coffeeshops and some popular nightclubs all add up to a real tourist treat. Temple Bar has very little to do with the Ireland of tradition that many visitors seek, but it’s perfect if you’re short on time and love waking up late in the morning, a bit hazy on the details but sure you had a great time.

The most significant sights are located on the edge of Temple Bar, beyond the warren of little streets, but they’re close enough and interesting enough to keep you in the area for a day at least. Wander into Temple Bar for lunch and out again to visit Christchurch Cathedral or Dublin Castle.

Temple Bar. Bus 77, 77A, 56A, 49, 125.

One of the more successful developments in Temple Bar, this is an attractive modern space where a market is held on Saturdays and films are screened outdoors in summer. Here you’ll find the Gallery of Photography (T 01 671 4654, Tue-Sat 1000-1800, Sun 1400-1800, free), a purpose-built and carefully lit venue that displays a permanent collection of 20th-century Irish photographs, plus changing monthly exhibitions by Irish and international artists. Close by is the National Photographic Archive (T 01 671 0073, Mon-Sat 1100-1800, Sun 1400-1800, free), a collection of 300,000 photographs from the archive of the National Library of Ireland. The exhibitions cover the late 19th and early 20th centuries and reveal much about Dublin at the turn of the last century. Works by modern Irish photographers are also displayed.

Linking Temple Bar with the north side of the river is the newly refurbished, cast-iron Ha’penny Bridge. Erected in 1816, this the oldest remaining pedestrian river crossing in Dublin and an enduring symbol of the city. It was originally called Wellington Bridge but quickly acquired its current name due to the halfpenny toll that was levied on all users until 1919.

Dame St, T 01 677 7129, http://www.dublincastle.ie Guided tours Mon-Fri 1000-1700, Sat, Sun and public holidays 1400-1700. Closed Good Friday, Christmas. E4.50. Bus 77, 77A, 56A, 49 (from Eden Quay), 125 (from O’Connell St).

Originally built in1204 by King John as a fortification to keep out the marauding native Irish, the castle you tour today is largely an 18th-century construct with 20th-century additions. The bulk of the guided tour is taken up with the State Apartments, which are still used for grand civic occasions; crystal chandeliers and plush Irish carpets endow the rooms with an incongruous posh-hotel feel. Check out the garish ceiling paintings in St Patrick’s Hall. Among artefacts on display is an inlaid table created by some poor convict for Queen Victoria, only for her to leave it behind, not caring for the risqué design. You’ll also visit the room where the wounded James Connolly was held captive, tied to a chair, after the Easter Rising in 1916. Through one of the windows you may glimpse a helicopter pad that covers the ‘Black Pool’  (dubh linn in Gaelic) from which the city takes its name. The tour concludes in the basement, where the remains of a Viking fortress have been partly excavated. After the tour, visit the castle’s Chapel Royal, built in the 18th century by Francis Johnston, who was also responsible for the GPO building in O’Connell Street.

On your way to the Viking undercroft, check out the suspect statue of Justice over the entrance gate: not only is she not wearing the traditional blindfold, but she has her back to the city that she should be protecting. What’s more, until the statue was refurbished in the 1980s, the scales had a tendency to fill with water and tip over to one side whenever it rained.

Dublin Castle, T 01 407 0750, http://www.cbl.ie May-Sep Mon-Fri 1000-1700, Sat 1100-1700, Sun 1300-1700, Oct-Apr closed Mon.  Closed public holidays. Free. Free tours Wed 1300, 1500, 1600. Bus 50, 50A, 54A (from Burgh Quay), 56A, 77, 77A, 77B (from Aston Quay).

After festering away for years in the suburbs, the Chester Beatty Library is now housed in a beautifully converted old clock tower building within the castle walls. This priceless collection of cultural and religious treasures from all over the world was put together by Chester Beatty, a New York mining magnate of Irish descent, who bequeathed the collection to the Irish state on his death. It includes icons, early printed books, papyrus texts, over 250 copies of the Koran, ancient Bibles and Buddhas. One of the most beautiful items is a 10th-century fragment of a Kufic script, written in gold on blue vellum. The items on display are only a small portion of the complete collection.

Cork Hill, Dame St, T 01 672 2204, http://www.dublincity.ie/cityhall Mon-Sat 1000-1715, Sun and public holidays 1400-1700. Closed 24, 25 Dec. E4. Bus 50, 50A, 54A, 56A, 77, 77A, 77B.

City Hall was built between 1769 and 1779 by Thomas Cooley as the city’s Royal Exchange. Like much of the rest of Dublin, it fell into disuse after the Act of Union in 1800 and was taken over as an administrative centre by the city corporation. The basement is now home to the ‘Story of the Capital’, a multi-media exhibition on the history of Dublin’s civic government. It’s a good warts-and-all introduction to the city, with displays ranging from a medieval ‘Yellow Pages’ to details of the protests against the construction of the Civic Offices on Wood Quay in 1978, which destroyed the most important Viking site in Ireland.

Before descending the stairs to the Story of the Capital exhibition, spend some time admiring the magnificent Rotunda ceiling and mosaic floor in the entrance hall.

Christchurch Place, T 01 679 8991, http://www.cccdub.ie Mon-Fri 0945-1700, Sat and Sun 1000-1700. Treasures of Christchurch Mon-Fri 0945-1700, Sat 1000-1645, Sun 1230-1515. Bus 49, 50, 51B, 54A, 56A, 65, 77, 77A, 78A, 123. Exhibition E3. Donations E3.

This is Dublin’s oldest building, pre-dating Dublin Castle by a century or so. The original wooden building of 1038 is long gone, and although the crypt, north wall and south transept date from the 12th century, the bulk of what you see is 19th-century stone cladding. It’s a pretty but shabby kind of place, with lovely faux ancient floor tiles, a 16th-century replica of the tomb of Strongbow (Richard de Clare, the Norman conqueror of Ireland)  and lots of stuff to admire in the ‘Treasures of Christchurch’ exhibition in the crypt, from unwanted statues of the English kings Charles I and II to gold and silver church ornaments, ancient manuscripts and more. Stand in the choir by the bishop’s throne and look back towards the entrance, and you’ll notice that the north wall (to your right) is seriously out of kilter with the rest of the building.

St Michael’s Hill, Christchurch, T 01 679 4611, http://www.dublinia.ie Apr-Sep, Mon-Sun  1000-1700, Oct-Mar Mon-Sat 1100-1630. E5.75. Bus 50 (from Eden Quay), 78A (from Aston Quay).

Recently revamped, this is a presentation in sights and sounds of what life in medieval Dublin might have been like. Visitors can wander through a merchant’s house, explore the kind of wooden ship that once docked at Wood Quay and play about with lots of hands-on gadgets. The best bit is a model of medieval Dublin that clearly shows how the ancient buildings and pathways still form the framework of the modern city. After the main exhibition, climb to the top of St Michael’s Tower for a bird’s-eye view of the city; the windows are rather grubby, but the skyline is explained for you.

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