architectureheritage

Georgian Dublin: the doors, the squares, the symmetry

Two squares of red brick, the painted doors, and Oscar Wilde lounging on his rock.

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

2.8 km

Time

~ 65 min

Difficulty

Easy

Start

Pearse (DART)

End

St Stephen's Green (Luas Green Line)

Best at

morning

Right now

24°C· Mostly clear

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

Georgian Dublin is the city's straightest line of self-confidence: a grid of red brick thrown up in the seventeen-hundreds for a parliament that thought it would last. The parliament went; the brick stayed, and the painted doors became the thing everyone photographs without quite knowing why.

Start on the north side of Merrion Square, the longest run of it, and walk slowly enough to notice the fanlights change house to house. At the corner, Oscar Wilde lounges on his boulder, looking back at the home he grew up in. Then the institutions take over: the National Gallery, free, with a Caravaggio that spent two hundred years lost; and Leinster House behind its railings, a country mansion that ended up running the country.

Drop south through Merrion Street and into Fitzwilliam Square, the smallest and the last, its garden still locked to keyholders only. You won't get into the green — that's the point. The doors and the symmetry are a street museum you walk for free. St Stephen's Green and the Luas are a short stroll west.

The route

On the map.

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

Elevation

↑ 47 m·↓ 46 m·4–21 m ASL

Stops along the way

Things to notice.

01
1
Merrion Square
Start at the railed garden in the centre and walk the north side first — the longest unbroken run of Georgian brick in the city, with the fanlights and painted doors that ended up on every postcard. The houses are offices and embassies now, but the street barely knows it.
01
Merrion Square
Start at the railed garden in the centre and walk the north side first — the longest unbroken run of Georgian brick in the city, with the fanlights and painted doors that ended up on every postcard. The houses are offices and embassies now, but the street barely knows it.
02
2
Oscar Wilde Memorial Sculpture
On the north-west corner of the garden, Wilde sprawls on a quartz boulder in a smoking jacket, half-smirking at the house across the road where he grew up. Walk round to read the witticisms carved on the two plinths behind him.
02
Oscar Wilde Memorial Sculpture
On the north-west corner of the garden, Wilde sprawls on a quartz boulder in a smoking jacket, half-smirking at the house across the road where he grew up. Walk round to read the witticisms carved on the two plinths behind him.
03
3
National Gallery of Ireland
Free, and the Caravaggio — the Taking of Christ, lost for two centuries and found in a Jesuit dining room — is worth the detour alone. Duck in for half an hour or save it; the Yeats rooms reward a slower visit.
03
National Gallery of Ireland
Free, and the Caravaggio — the Taking of Christ, lost for two centuries and found in a Jesuit dining room — is worth the detour alone. Duck in for half an hour or save it; the Yeats rooms reward a slower visit.
04
4
Leinster House railings
The Dáil sits behind this gate — the seat of the Irish parliament, fronted like a country house because it was one. You can't go in without booking, but the lawn and the obelisk to Collins, Griffith and O'Connell read fine from the street.
04
Leinster House railings
The Dáil sits behind this gate — the seat of the Irish parliament, fronted like a country house because it was one. You can't go in without booking, but the lawn and the obelisk to Collins, Griffith and O'Connell read fine from the street.
05
5
Merrion Street Upper
Cut south past the Merrion Hotel and the Garden of Remembrance side of things. Number 24 is where the Duke of Wellington is said to have been born — the plaque hedges, and so should you.
05
Merrion Street Upper
Cut south past the Merrion Hotel and the Garden of Remembrance side of things. Number 24 is where the Duke of Wellington is said to have been born — the plaque hedges, and so should you.
06
6
Fitzwilliam Square
End at the smallest and last of the great squares, and the only one whose garden is still private — keyholders only. The point is the symmetry from outside: doors, fanlights, bootscrapers, coal-hole covers, all of a piece. The Luas at St Stephen's Green is a few minutes west.
06
Fitzwilliam Square
End at the smallest and last of the great squares, and the only one whose garden is still private — keyholders only. The point is the symmetry from outside: doors, fanlights, bootscrapers, coal-hole covers, all of a piece. The Luas at St Stephen's Green is a few minutes west.

Georgian Dublin: the doors, the squares, the symmetry

On the map.

Things to notice.

Merrion Square

Merrion Square

Oscar Wilde Memorial Sculpture

Oscar Wilde Memorial Sculpture

National Gallery of Ireland

National Gallery of Ireland

Leinster House railings

Leinster House railings

Merrion Street Upper

Merrion Street Upper

Fitzwilliam Square

Fitzwilliam Square

Two more, on similar days.

Henrietta Street: Dublin's first and grandest Georgian street

Trinity College: the cobbles, the Long Room, College Green