Park in Dublin
Also known as St Stephens Green
St Stephen’s Green is a Victorian public park at the south end of Grafton Street, with a lake, bandstand, formal gardens, and mature trees. Free. The park is the green heart of central Dublin and a popular lunch spot for office workers and students from nearby Trinity College. Budget travelers sit on the benches, watch the ducks, and rest between walks through the Grafton Street shopping district and the Georgian streets of Merrion Square.
Practical
On foot
Free and low-cost routes that stop at St Stephen's Green.
The Dublin Georgian Quarter Walk is a self-guided route through Dublin's 18th-century residential core. Free. From Trinity College through Merrion Square, the National Gallery of Ireland, St Stephen's Green, and back via Grafton Street, it covers the elegant side of Dublin and two world-class free attractions in one walk.
Nearby
Other places worth the walk, and what each one costs.
The Book of Kells Exhibition at Trinity College displays the 9th-century illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels, one of the most famous medieval manuscripts in the world. Entry is paid (includes access to the Long Room, a 65-meter barrel-vaulted library of 200,000 books and marble busts).
The Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle is a museum of manuscripts, miniature paintings, prints, and rare books collected by Alfred Chester Beatty, an American mining magnate who made Dublin his home. Free.
Christ Church Cathedral is Dublin's oldest building (founded 1030), a medieval cathedral with a massive crypt (the largest in Britain and Ireland), the tomb of Strongbow (the Norman warlord who conquered Dublin), and a preserved cat and rat found in an organ pipe (known as "Tom and Jerry"). Entry is paid at a modest price.
Free formal gardens behind Dublin Castle featuring a Celtic knot pattern laid out in planting beds. The name recalls the "black pool" that gave Dublin its name.
Dublin Castle was the seat of British rule in Ireland for 700 years, from 1204 until Irish independence in 1922. The exterior grounds and the Chapel Royal (with spectacular carved stone and oak interiors) are free.
Glasnevin Cemetery is Ireland's national cemetery, where Michael Collins, Eamon de Valera, Daniel O'Connell, and many other figures from Irish history are buried. Free to enter (guided tours are available for a fee).
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The whole of Dublin