Ranelagh & Rathmines: the southern red-brick villages
Two village triangles, the canal between them, and the green copper dome over Rathmines. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Ranelagh village triangle
Come up from the Luas stop into the little wedge of streets where Ranelagh does its eating. The restaurants change hands, but the density doesn't — start with a coffee and clock which windows you'll want to come back to for dinner.

2. Ranelagh Gardens
A small public park behind the village, on the site where Richard Crosbie made Ireland's first manned balloon flight in 1785. Two minutes of grass and old trees; a quiet reset before the walk proper begins.

3. The Grand Canal at Charlemont
Drop down to the canal and walk the towpath west under the plane trees. The water is still and green; swans, the odd rower, the backs of Georgian terraces. This is the seam that stitches the two villages together.

4. Mount Pleasant Square
Cut up off the canal into one of the best-kept Victorian squares in the city — red-brick terraces around a private tennis ground. Read the doorcases; the bricklaying gets showier the further in you go. Loop the square and carry on.

5. Church of Mary Immaculate, Rathmines
The great green copper dome you've been navigating by. Step inside if the doors are open — the present dome was rebuilt after a 1920 fire, and the interior is far lighter than the heavy front suggests. Stand under it for a minute.

6. Rathmines village and the town hall clock
End at the red-brick town hall with its four-faced clock — locally the faces were said never to agree. The main road below is thick with cafés and the old Stella cinema. Buses back to the centre leave from the door.

Ranelagh & Rathmines: the southern red-brick villages