waterfrontheritage

Dún Laoghaire: the great harbour and the piers

Two granite Victorian arms around a harbour, a bandstand, and the mailboat's ghost.

Photo: William Murphy / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Drafted by Claude — the editor hasn’t walked this one yet. We’ll update this notice once it’s been verified on the ground.

Distance

5.5 km

Time

~ 105 min

Difficulty

Moderate

Start

Dún Laoghaire (Mallin) (DART)

End

Dún Laoghaire (Mallin) (DART)

Best at

afternoon

Right now

16°C· Overcast

Open in Maps for turn-by-turn, or take it offline as GPX.

Dún Laoghaire is the grandest piece of Victorian engineering on the Irish coast: a harbour built by hand from local granite, two enormous piers thrown out into the bay, made to shelter the mailboats that connected Ireland to Britain. The walk is the harbour and the promenade culture that grew up around it.

Five and a half kilometres, best on a bright afternoon. Start in the People's Park, then out onto the East Pier — the grand one, with its bandstand and its lighthouse, where half the town takes its Sunday constitutional. Back at the harbour mouth, stand at the old Carlisle Pier berth: this is where the mailboat to Holyhead left for a century and a half, and where a great many people left Ireland for good.

Then the West Pier, longer and rougher and almost empty, for the harbour without the crowd. South along the seafront toward Sandycove, past the shell of the old baths, the water slate-grey and full of swimmers in every season. Loop back to the promenade and the DART. A 99 from the van by the East Pier is the correct way to finish.

The route

On the map.

A soft dashed line, numbered stops. It’s a suggestion, not a turn-by-turn.

Elevation

↑ 117 m·↓ 117 m·0–27 m ASL

Stops along the way

Things to notice.

01
1
The People's Park
Start across the road from the station in the People's Park, a small Victorian pleasure garden with a Saturday market under the trees. A coffee here before the piers is no bad idea; the harbour walk has no shelter once you're out on the granite.
01
The People's Park
Start across the road from the station in the People's Park, a small Victorian pleasure garden with a Saturday market under the trees. A coffee here before the piers is no bad idea; the harbour walk has no shelter once you're out on the granite.
02
2
The East Pier and bandstand
The grander of the two arms, built from local granite over decades from 1817. Walk it out past the Victorian bandstand to the lighthouse at the end. This is the Dún Laoghaire promenade — half the town walks it on a Sunday, and you should too.
02
The East Pier and bandstand
The grander of the two arms, built from local granite over decades from 1817. Walk it out past the Victorian bandstand to the lighthouse at the end. This is the Dún Laoghaire promenade — half the town walks it on a Sunday, and you should too.
03
3
The Carlisle Pier / mailboat berth
Back at the harbour mouth, this is where the mailboat to Holyhead sailed for over 150 years — generations of emigrants left from here. The berth is quiet now, the ferries gone since 2015, but the scale of the place still tells you what it was for.
03
The Carlisle Pier / mailboat berth
Back at the harbour mouth, this is where the mailboat to Holyhead sailed for over 150 years — generations of emigrants left from here. The berth is quiet now, the ferries gone since 2015, but the scale of the place still tells you what it was for.
04
4
The West Pier
The longer, wilder, emptier pier — rough underfoot and far less manicured than the East. Walk it if you want the harbour to yourself and the gulls. You don't have to do the full length; the first bend gives you the view back across the water.
04
The West Pier
The longer, wilder, emptier pier — rough underfoot and far less manicured than the East. Walk it if you want the harbour to yourself and the gulls. You don't have to do the full length; the first bend gives you the view back across the water.
05
5
The Forty Foot / Sandycove direction
Head south along the seafront past the old Victorian baths site toward Sandycove. The water on this stretch is the colour of the whole east coast — slate and silver. Sea swimmers are in it year round.
05
The Forty Foot / Sandycove direction
Head south along the seafront past the old Victorian baths site toward Sandycove. The water on this stretch is the colour of the whole east coast — slate and silver. Sea swimmers are in it year round.
06
6
The seafront baths and back
The derelict-then-redeveloped Dún Laoghaire Baths sit on the front, a reminder of the resort town this once was. Loop back along the promenade to the harbour and the DART. End with a 99 from the ice-cream van that's usually parked near the East Pier.
06
The seafront baths and back
The derelict-then-redeveloped Dún Laoghaire Baths sit on the front, a reminder of the resort town this once was. Loop back along the promenade to the harbour and the DART. End with a 99 from the ice-cream van that's usually parked near the East Pier.

Dún Laoghaire: the great harbour and the piers

On the map.

Things to notice.

The People's Park

The People's Park

The East Pier and bandstand

The East Pier and bandstand

The Carlisle Pier / mailboat berth

The Carlisle Pier / mailboat berth

The West Pier

The West Pier

The Forty Foot / Sandycove direction

The Forty Foot / Sandycove direction

The seafront baths and back

The seafront baths and back

Two more, on similar days.

Sandycove: the James Joyce Tower and the Forty Foot

Dalkey and Killiney Hill: the Irish Riviera