Most of this list sits inside the canal ring, close enough to link two or three in a day on foot. Dublin Castle alone holds two of them: the Chester Beatty, with its early Christian papyri and the Ibn al-Bawwab Qur’an, and the small Garda Museum in the vaults of the Treasury Building. Kildare Street runs from Trinity College to St Stephen’s Green with three free national institutions along it, the Ardagh Chalice and Tara Brooch among them. The Book of Kells and the Long Room are at College Green, the GPO museum stands behind the bullet-marked columns on O’Connell Street, and Dublinia fills Christ Church’s old Synod Hall.
West of the centre the ticketed sites gather: the Guinness Storehouse at St James’s Gate, seven storeys ending at the Gravity Bar, and Jameson’s original distillery on Bow Street. Further out again are Collins Barracks and IMMA at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, both free. EPIC runs the other way, in the stone vaults of the CHQ building on Custom House Quay. Only the butterfly house at Malahide Castle takes you out of the city, and it suits a late morning, when the butterflies are most active.
Several are shut. The Hugh Lane closed in September 2025 for work expected to last until 2028, the Chester Beatty is closed for the second half of 2026, and the Garda Museum reopens in January 2027. The Dublin Writers Museum never came back after the pandemic; its collection is now at MoLI.
Seven storeys of brewing history at St James's Gate, ending with a complimentary pint at the Gravity Bar and a wide view over the city.
Two hundred thousand of the library's oldest books sit under the barrel vault of the Long Room, with the Book of Kells a few rooms away.
Free to enter at Dublin Castle, it holds Papyrus 45 and 46 and the Ibn al-Bawwab Qur'an, but is closed for the rest of 2026.
The National Museum's Decorative Arts and History collection, free to enter in a 1704 barracks, with Irish silver, Eileen Gray's furniture and the Asgard.
Closed since the pandemic and never reopened; the Parnell Square collection moved to MoLI in 2022, and this page explains where those treasures went.
25 of 25 shown — tap a pin for the place.
Dublin, dublin
The former fermentation plant at St James's Gate was transformed into the Guinness Storehouse in 2000, creating a seven-storey visitor experience shaped like a pint of stout. Tracing 250 years of brewing heritage from raw ingredients to the rooftop Gravity Bar, it offers hands-on displays, expert tastings and a complimentary pint with sweeping views over Dublin.
College Green, dublin
The Long Room holds 200,000 of the library's oldest books beneath a barrel-vaulted ceiling, with the Book of Kells displayed a few rooms away. A €90 million restoration begun in 2022 emptied the gallery of its volumes and added Luke Jerram's illuminated globe, Gaia, in 2023.
Dublin Castle, dublin
The Chester Beatty, free to enter in the grounds of Dublin Castle, holds the manuscript collection of mining magnate Sir Alfred Chester Beatty – among it Papyrus 45 and 46, two of the earliest surviving Christian codices, and the Ibn al-Bawwab Qur'an. It was named European Museum of the Year in 2002. Note that it is closed for all of the second half of 2026.
Dublin, dublin
Completed in 1704, Collins Barracks is one of the oldest purpose-built military barracks in the world and served for nearly three centuries. It's now the National Museum of Ireland's Decorative Arts & History collection – free to enter, with Irish silver, Eileen Gray's furniture, the 1916 Rising and the Asgard yacht among the highlights.
Dublin, dublin
For thirty years a Georgian house on Parnell Square held Joyce's typewriter, Beckett's telephone and first editions of Dracula and Gulliver's Travels. The museum shut during the pandemic and never reopened, and in 2022 the whole collection moved to the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI). This page tells you where those treasures went and how to see them.
Christchurch Place, dublin
Dublinia fills Christ Church's old Synod Hall with reconstructed Viking streets, a medieval market and costumed interpreters, aimed squarely at families rather than glass-case history. The ticket includes a free daily walking tour and the 96-step climb up St Michael's Tower for a view over the city. If you're also seeing the cathedral, buy the combined ticket.
Dublin, dublin
EPIC fills the stone vaults of the 1820 CHQ building on Custom House Quay, telling the story of the ten million Irish who left the island since the 6th century. It's a screens-and-stories museum rather than an artefact one, three times voted Europe's Leading Tourist Attraction, with an on-site genealogy centre where visitors with Irish roots can trace surnames and townlands.
Dublin, dublin
The Garda Museum is a small free exhibition in the stone vaults of Dublin Castle's Treasury Building, run by a single sergeant and one civilian. It traces Irish policing from 18th-century night watchmen through the RIC to An Garda Síochána, by way of wooden batons, campaign medals and a bottle of RIC ginger wine. Note that it is closed for the duration of Ireland's EU Presidency, reopening in January 2027.
O'Connell Street Lower, dublin
On O'Connell Street stands the building that was headquarters of the 1916 Easter Rising, where Patrick Pearse read the Proclamation from the steps. Behind the bullet-marked columns the GPO Museum tells the story from revolution to the Good Friday Agreement, and the hall below is still a working post office.
Dublin, dublin
The Hugh Lane opened in 1908 as Dublin's first public gallery for modern art, the work of Sir Hugh Lane, and has occupied Charlemont House on Parnell Square since 1933. Its holdings include the Lane Bequest Impressionists and Francis Bacon's reconstructed London studio. The building closed on 28 September 2025 for a refurbishment expected to last until 2028, with the collection accessible online during the works.
Royal Hospital Kilmainham, dublin
IMMA holds Ireland’s national collection of modern and contemporary art, free to enter, inside the 17th-century Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The 48-acre site pairs Gordon Lambert’s founding donation and rotating exhibitions with a formal garden, a sculpture trail and Ireland’s oldest cemetery.
Bow Street, dublin
This is Dublin’s original whiskey site, where John Jameson set up in 1780 and distilled until 1971. It runs guided tours and comparative tastings, and it’s the only place in the city with a live maturation warehouse where you can draw whiskey straight from the cask.
dublin, dublin
This short Dublin street between Trinity College and St Stephen's Green is lined with the seat of the Oireachtas and three free national institutions. The National Museum's Treasury holds the Ardagh Chalice and Tara Brooch, and the gold collection runs back to 2200 BC.
Malahide, dublin
This is the only butterfly house in the Republic of Ireland, a single warm glasshouse in the walled garden at Malahide Castle where more than 20 species of tropical butterfly fly free among the planting. It's a 20 to 30 minute stop, best done as part of a castle-and-gardens visit and best in the late morning, when the butterflies are most active.
Merrion Square West, dublin
The National Gallery of Ireland holds the national art collection on Merrion Square, free to visit. Its most famous work, Caravaggio's Taking of Christ, hung unrecognised in a Dublin Jesuit house until 1990; alongside it are Jack B. Yeats, Frederick William Burton and five centuries of European painting, in a mix of grand Georgian rooms and a modern glass atrium.
Dublin, dublin
The National Library of Ireland on Kildare Street is free to visit and holds millions of items documenting Irish life. Its award-winning Yeats exhibition needs no ticket, while researchers can apply for a free reader's card to use the domed Victorian reading room and the family-history service.
Dublin, dublin
The Treasury here holds the Tara Brooch and the 9th-century Ardagh Chalice, the Ór gallery shows gold collars worked from 2200 BC, and the Kingship and Sacrifice room displays Iron Age bog bodies such as Old Croghan Man. Admission is free, and two hours covers the permanent collections.
Dublin, dublin
The National Museum's four sites are all free to enter. Kildare Street holds the Iron Age bog bodies, the Tara Brooch and the Ardagh Chalice; Collins Barracks covers military and design history; Country Life in Mayo recreates rural Ireland from the 1850s to the 1950s. The Natural History 'Dead Zoo' on Merrion Street is closed for renovation, with some of it now at Collins Barracks.
Dublin, dublin
The Royal Hospital Kilmainham is Ireland's first classical building, raised in the 1680s as a home for retired soldiers and modelled on Les Invalides in Paris. It's now the Irish Museum of Modern Art, with free admission, formal herb gardens and old military graveyards. Note that the Great Hall and Chapel are closed through 2026 for the EU Presidency.
Townparks, dublin
Skerries Mills is a restored heritage site on Dublin's north coast, built around three national monuments: a five-sail and a four-sail windmill and a 13th-century watermill. The guided tour runs the machinery and lets you grind flour, and a farmers market takes over the grounds every Saturday.
Dublin, dublin
When Teeling opened in Newmarket in 2015 it was the first working whiskey distillery in Dublin for 125 years, back in the Liberties where the family first distilled in 1782. Tours run every 20 minutes past three copper pot stills, ending with a tasting, and there's a rooftop bar and a café above.
Dublin, dublin
N Wall Quay, dublin
Dunsink Ln, dublin
Howth, dublin
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