Ballsbridge & the embassy belt: the diplomatic quarter
Brass-plated avenues, the great brick stadium, and a Victorian park with a duck pond. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Aviva Stadium, Lansdowne Road
Start under the swooping glass curve of the Aviva — built on the oldest rugby ground in the world still in use, the railway running clean beneath the stands. You don't need a ticket; just stand at the foot of it and look up at the scale of the thing.

2. Lansdowne Road and the brass plates
Walk inland along the red-brick avenues — Lansdowne, Elgin, Raglan — and read the brass plates on the gateposts. This is the embassy belt; whole streets of Victorian villas now fly other countries' flags. Quiet, gated, deliberate.

3. Herbert Park
Cut into the city's most genteel Victorian park, laid out for the 1907 Irish International Exhibition. Circle the long pond — ducks, model boats at weekends, the bandstand. This is the green middle of the walk; take the full loop, not the shortcut.

4. The RDS, Merrion Road
The Royal Dublin Society's showgrounds — home of the Dublin Horse Show every August, and a concert venue the rest of the year. Walk the long Merrion Road frontage; even shut, the gates and the old members' buildings carry the Edwardian confidence of the place.

5. Ballsbridge village and the Dodder
Back at the village crossroads, the River Dodder runs under the bridge that names the place. Lean over and watch the water; herons fish this stretch. The old Ballsbridge of banks and hotels clusters around here — a coffee stop before the run to the sea.

6. Sandymount Strand
Walk east until the streets open onto the vast flat tidal strand — the sands of Joyce's Ulysses, the Poolbeg chimneys far out. When the tide's gone the beach runs for what looks like a mile. The DART home is two minutes back at Sandymount village.

Ballsbridge & the embassy belt: the diplomatic quarter