National Museum of Ireland

Solve riddles and find clues on a self-guided scavenger hunt and walking tour through Dublin. Download the app onto your phone and explore Dublin at your own pace, spotting sights such as Dublin City Hall, the Oscar Wilde Memorial, and more. Use the app and integrated maps to find your way to 10 attractions in Dublin. As you explore, solve a location-based riddle at each attraction and unlock the next location you'll visit. The app includes facts and information about each location you stop at. Work as a team and use logic, imagination, observation, and problem solving to make your way around the city. For some extra fun compete in teams and race to the finish line. Along the way, you can stop for a coffee, grab lunch, or take a break at any time. The tour route includes the Parnell Monument, the Spire of Dublin, O’Connel Bridge, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin City Hall, St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Andrew's Church, Fusiliers' Arch, National Museum of Ireland, and the Oscar Wilde Memorial, where the tour ends.

This amazing tour uses Ireland’s artistic and literary wealth to explain the historical moments, traditions, wars, movements, and eras that have sculpted Ireland through the centuries. You’ll explore only the highlights of the National Gallery, National Library and National Museum, with a break half-way through. This cultural tour is designed to provide the right mix of variety and depth so that you remain engaged throughout the 3-hours. This tour will show you some of Ireland's great artistic achievements like the symbolic paintings representing the Norman Conquest of Ireland and the Irish Civil War, insight into the life and works of W.B. Yeats - Ireland’s Greatest Poet and the Tara Brooch and the Ardagh Chalice, treasures that epitomise Ireland’s Golden Age (500-800AD). And the best part of the tour? It’s the evocative explanations of how these pieces of art fit into the jigsaw puzzle that is Irish culture and history. Think of each piece as a word. The guide uses each word to tell a story that is insightful, emotive and special - The Story of Ireland. Book now to find out why so many people have already called this tour the highlight of their Ireland trip.

Join this walking tour to chart the revolutionary period of 1913-1923, a decade of division, and war, that created the independent Irish state and partitioned the island of Ireland.  The tour begins in the heart of Trinity College Dublin, founded in 1592 A.D. by Queen Elizabeth I. Discover how in 1913, Ireland was a constituent part of the UK and by 1923, an independent Irish Free State had emerged from the shadow of Civil War.  Continue to outside Liberty Hall, where the rebellion of 1916 began at 12 noon on 24th April, as the involvement of the labor movement under James Connolly is explained by your guide.  After a brief stop at the Abbey Theatre to discuss the cultural context of the Gaelic Revival and W.B. Yeats, arrive in front of the General Post Office, the headquarters of the Easter Rising, a pivotal moment for Irish independence.  Travel across the city, making stops at Ha’Penny Bridge and Eagle Tavern, before arriving at Dublin City Hall. In the grounds of Dublin Castle, learn how Michael Collins waged a campaign against the Special Branch of the Royal Irish Constabulary and British Military Intelligence.  Your last stop is the Four Courts by the River Liffey. Here your guide will tell you about the Irish Civil War of 1922-23. The republican movement that had been so successful split over the issue of the Treaty and two sides came to blows which started an 11-month civil war.

If you only have one day to see as much of Dublin as possible, then this five-hour walking tour is the perfect option. History, culture, architecture, Irish society, Irish language, literature, and jokes are shared during your walk around the city. Five hours will fly by quickly as you see all the city's most important sights. There is also the option to add a guided tour of the Old Library of Trinity College, where the Book of Kells is housed. (Note that if this option is selection, the National Museum of History and Archaeology will be substituted out.) Trinity’s Long Room library, one of the world’s most beautiful libraries, houses 200,000 of Ireland’s most ancient texts. Admire the "Proclamition of the Irish Republic," one of the most important texts in Irish history. The Long Room also features the Brian Boru Harp, Ireland’s oldest surviving harp and the model for the insignia of Ireland.  On Mondays, the National Museum of History and Archaeology is closed. Please note that there is an entrance fee for those who opt for the Book of Kells (adults and children). Please note, as part of ongoing conservation and preservation plans for the Old Library, the Book of Kells will be removed from public display from November 2019 to early March 2020. However, a full color replica of the Book of Kells will be available to view in the Trinity’s Long Room library.