Smithfield and the markets
The wide cobbled square, the Jameson distillery, the old fruit-and-veg halls, and the Lighthouse cinema. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Smithfield Square
One of the largest civic spaces in Europe — a long cobbled plaza lined with tall gas braziers, once the horse market and now the centre of the regenerated quarter. The monthly horse fair still drew crowds within living memory. Walk the length of it before anything else.

2. Jameson Distillery Bow St.
The original 1780 distillery where Jameson was made until 1971, now a visitor centre and tasting rooms. The tour is paid; you can also just stand under the old chimney and read the Bow Street frontage. Whiskey, not whisky — the 'e' is the Irish spelling, and they'll remind you.

3. The Lighthouse Cinema
Tucked into Market Square off the plaza, the city's best arthouse cinema — four screens, a good café-bar, and a programme that runs to the films nobody else shows. Check what's on; an afternoon screening is a fine way to break the walk.

4. Dublin Fruit and Vegetable Market
The grand redbrick-and-glass Victorian market hall on Mary's Lane, built 1892, with carved stone reaching of fish and produce on the façade. Long the wholesale heart of the city; it has been under slow restoration. Walk the exterior for the ironwork even if the doors are shut.

5. St Michan's Church
On Church Street, the church whose limestone vaults have naturally mummified the dead — leathery bodies you can see on a guided tour, including a figure they call the Crusader. Bram Stoker is said to have visited. Macabre, brief, and genuinely strange; the tour is the only way in.

6. The Cobblestone
Back toward the square, the pub that is really a music venue — trad sessions most nights, played by people who can actually play, in a room that fills with locals. End here. You don't have to stay for the whole session, but you'll want to.

Smithfield and the markets