The Liberties: St Patrick's and the brewery streets
Swift's cathedral, the Guinness gates, Francis Street's antiques, and the oldest market ground in Dublin. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. St Patrick's Cathedral
Start at the largest church in Ireland — Jonathan Swift was Dean here, and he's buried in the floor of the nave beside Stella. Go in for the medieval scale and Swift's own savage Latin epitaph; the park alongside is free and good for a sit.

2. Marsh's Library
Behind the cathedral, the first public library in Ireland, opened 1707 and barely changed since — dark oak stalls and the wired cages where readers were once locked in with rare books. Small, eccentric, almost always empty. Worth the few euro.

3. Francis Street antiques
The spine of the old Liberties, lined with antique dealers, salvage yards and the occasional gallery. You don't have to buy a Georgian door; just walk it slowly and read the shopfronts. This is where Dublin sells its own past back to itself.

4. Newmarket Square
A wide cobbled Georgian market square, once the hide-and-grain market, now home to weekend food markets and a distillery or two. Quiet midweek — come for the proportions and the sense of a market town swallowed by the city.

5. Guinness Storehouse / St James's Gate
The brewery gates have run since 1759, on a lease Arthur Guinness signed for nine thousand years. The Storehouse tour is the paid headline; skip it if you like and just walk James's Street past the cooperage smell and the iron gates.

6. Thomas Street and St Catherine's
End on Thomas Street, the medieval high road west. St Catherine's church is where Robert Emmet was hanged in 1803 — a plaque marks the spot. Finish at the NCAD art-school yards before doubling back, or carry on to the Luas at James's.

The Liberties: St Patrick's and the brewery streets