South of the Grand Canal the city turns its collar up: Ballsbridge is Dublin's diplomatic quarter, a grid of brass-plated Victorian avenues between the rugby stadium and the sea. Do it in the morning, when the streets are empty and the light is clean off the bay, and walk it east until the houses give way to open sand.
Start under the Aviva, the glass curve raised over the oldest rugby ground still in use, with the railway threaded beneath the stands. Walk inland through the embassy belt — Lansdowne, Elgin, Raglan — reading the flags and brass plates on the gateposts, then loop the long pond in Herbert Park, laid out for the 1907 exhibition. The RDS showgrounds hold the line along Merrion Road, Edwardian and self-assured even with the gates shut. At the village crossroads the River Dodder slides under the bridge that gave the place its name; herons fish it.
End on Sandymount Strand, the flat tidal sands of Ulysses with the Poolbeg chimneys out beyond. When the tide is out the beach runs for what feels like a mile. Sandymount DART takes you home.
