Temple Bar: the cobbles by day, before the night takes it
The galleries, the food market, the photo-famous red pub, and the river two streets down. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Temple Bar Food Market
On Saturday, Meeting House Square fills with oysters, raw honey, cheese and crepes from morning on. Come early and eat as you go — this is the quarter at its best, before the stag parties arrive and the cobbles change character entirely.

2. The Gallery of Photography
On the south side of the square, a small free gallery of Irish and international photography — usually one quiet show, twenty minutes, nobody else in. The kind of stop that justifies coming to Temple Bar in daylight.

3. The Temple Bar pub
The bright-red pub on the corner of Temple Lane is the single most photographed façade in Dublin. You don't have to drink the famously dear pint inside; the point is the wall of flowers and the crowd taking the same picture you are. Walk on once you've got it.

4. Sunlight Chambers
On Essex Quay, look up at the terracotta frieze wrapping the building — soap-making and washerwomen, commissioned by Lever Brothers, the Sunlight soap people. An odd, lovely thing most people walk under without ever raising their eyes.

5. Dublin Castle, Palace Street gate
Slip up to the lower castle yard for a look — the squat Record Tower is the last bit of the medieval fortress, the rest rebuilt Georgian. You can walk the yards for free; the State Apartments are a paid tour if you've time.

6. Ha'penny Bridge
Finish at the white cast-iron arch over the Liffey — built 1816, named for the toll it once charged. Cross it for the view back down the river, then the Jervis Luas is a couple of minutes north. The river is the spine the whole quarter hangs off.

Temple Bar: the cobbles by day, before the night takes it