Portobello is the stretch of the Grand Canal that the city has quietly turned into its summer back garden — grass banks, lifting bridges, coloured doors reflected in still water — wrapped around the old streets that Dublin once called Little Jerusalem. It works best on a bright afternoon, when the locks fill up with people the moment the sun lands.
Start at La Touche Bridge, where the canal once ended in Portobello Harbour and the passenger boats tied up. Walk the towpath east past the black-gated locks, then turn inland into the terraces where Lithuanian Jewish families settled a century ago. The synagogue is gone, but the streets keep its shape, and the Irish Jewish Museum on Walworth Road holds the rest — a converted house-synagogue, volunteer-run, with its own idea of opening hours. Wander Bloomfield Avenue's coloured doors, the quarter Joyce gave Leopold Bloom, then drift back to the water.
Finish toward Harcourt by way of Camden Street, where the locks hand you over to the bars. Pick one for a pint; the Luas home runs from the corner.
