Explore Dublin

The GPO Museum occupies part of the General Post Office on O'Connell Street, a building by Francis Johnston that opened in 1818 and served as the rebels' headquarters in the 1916 Easter Rising. Opened in 2016 for the centenary, it tells the story of the Rising and of modern Irish history with artefacts, a film and interactive displays.

The National Wax Museum Plus is a waxworks in the Victorian Lafayette Building on Westmoreland Street, near O'Connell Bridge. It first opened in 1983 on Granby Row, moved to the Armoury on Foster Place and came here in 2017. Its rooms show wax figures of Irish historical figures, writers and musicians, Irish legends and film characters.

The Custom House is a neoclassical building on the north quay of the Liffey, designed by James Gandon and opened in 1791 to collect customs duties. The IRA burned it out in 1921 and it was later restored; it now houses a government department. A visitor centre tells its history and shows Edward Smyth's carved heads of Ireland's rivers.

EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum occupies the vaults of the CHQ Building, a former warehouse of 1820 on Custom House Quay in the Docklands. Opened in 2016, its galleries use interactive and audio-visual displays to tell why millions of people left Ireland and what the Irish diaspora went on to do around the world.

The National Gallery of Ireland holds the national collection of Irish and European art. Founded in 1854, it opened in 1864 in a building by Francis Fowke on Merrion Square West, later extended with the Milltown, Beit and Millennium wings. The collection spans Irish painting, Italian Baroque art and Dutch masters, from Vermeer to Jack B. Yeats.

Roe & Co Distillery is a whiskey distillery opened by Diageo in 2019 in the former Guinness power station on James's Street, close to the St James's Gate brewery. It is named after George Roe, whose Thomas Street Distillery stood nearby until it closed in 1926. Visits explain how the whiskey is made and include a tasting.

Teeling Whiskey Distillery opened in 2015 on Newmarket in the Liberties, the first new whiskey distillery in Dublin in over 125 years. It stands near Marrowbone Lane, where Walter Teeling set up a distillery in 1782. Guided tours follow the whiskey-making process past the working stills and end with a tasting.

The Guinness Storehouse is a visitor centre in a former fermentation building of the St James's Gate brewery, opened to the public in 2000. Its seven floors surround a glass atrium and cover the brewing process, the company's founder Arthur Guinness and its advertising. The Gravity Bar on the top floor looks out over Dublin.

Pearse Lyons Distillery occupies the former St James' Church on James's Street, a Church of Ireland church whose present building was designed by Joseph Welland in 1859. Pearse Lyons bought it in 2014 and restored it as a distillery, which opened in 2017. Guided tours show the stills inside the former church, the stained glass and the old graveyard.

Dublin Zoo covers about 28 hectares of Phoenix Park. Laid out to a design by Decimus Burton, it opened in 1831 and is one of the oldest zoos in the world. Around 400 animals of some 100 species live in habitats such as the African Savanna, the Kaziranga Forest Trail, the Gorilla Rainforest and Sea Lion Cove.

Kilmainham Gaol is a former prison in west Dublin, opened in 1796 and closed in 1924. Many Irish rebels were held here, and leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed in its Stonebreakers' Yard. Restored by volunteers, it opened as a museum in 1966; it is run by the Office of Public Works and seen on a guided tour.

Malahide Castle stands in a parkland estate of about 100 hectares north of Dublin; its oldest parts date from the 12th century, and the Talbot family lived here from 1185 until 1976, apart from the years 1649 to 1660. Guided tours show the furnished rooms and the Great Hall, and the grounds hold walled gardens, a butterfly house and a fairy trail.