16/04/19 - More Dublin Pub Ticking

Previous Trips - Pub Crawl 1, Pub Crawl 2


You can't really know a City until you know it's pubs.   I think I know Dublin.

Third visit in recent years and I have nearly exhausted these lists - Culture Trip to Dublin Bars and Dublin's Best 25 Bars. 

Over 2 April nights, I added the following ticks.

Mulligans, Poolbeg Street

Great planning meant that my work colleague and myself were in different hotels.   Mulligans, plotted into Google Maps, looked half way between us.   A fraught trip across the Liffey, where the local sewer rats were pelting pedestrians at the crossing with eggs, and I am in this back street boozer, opposite a soon to be demolished office block.

View from the Sunny Side of the Street

My work colleague doesn't like Guinness but he did appreciate being taken to an authentic Irish pub on his first visit to Dublin.   They don't come much more authentic that a 1782 institution.

History Today

The Dubliners we are working with congratulated us on our choice.   I think they expected us to end up in an All Bar One.

Toners, Baggot Street

Got to say, if you are heading to Dublin and want some proper pubs away from Temple Bar, then head to Baggot Street.   The next three are all in a line waiting to be discovered.

Toners is winner of Snug of the Year.   After battling my way through the crowd of drinkers at the door, I managed to get a seat at the bar and ask the staff about it.   They offered to let me walk behind the bar to reach it, at the shop front.   I declined, I was in too deep. 

I did get a glance of it on the way out.   A packed pub and the key feature sat unused.

Snug of the Year in the left hand front Window.

Doheny and Nesbitt, Baggot Street

Just over the road and another fine example of Victorian pub interiors.   This is simply gorgeous.  Every wall decorated in Whisky themed mirrors and pub paraphernalia.  I felt it pointless to ask if they stocked it, but they even had the famous Bass Triangle.

Exterior hides a wonderful interior

They even had a snug, and Toners is going some if it won Snug of the Year.   I commandeered it, until someone with more pressing needs required it.   A hungry looking family. 

I retired to the bar to start watching Barcelona dismantle Man Utd.

View from a Snug

O Donoghues, Merrion Row

Over the junction and Baggot Street turns into Merrion Row.   Here we find a pub with a proud history of Irish music.   Multi roomer, totally authentic and well worth seeking out.

Home of Traditional Irish Music

Perfect Pub

Bleeding Horse, Camden Street

I was never going to turn down a visit to such an unusually named pub but the Bleeding Horse was not as I expected.    It looked modern.  It has a history running back to the C17th.   Full of tv screens showing the football and no free space at all.   Not what I was looking for.

Older than it looks but beware Irish Pubs promoting Carlsberg

Devitts, Camden Street

Reminding me of the Long Hall from pub crawl two, this is a long thin pub, with a huge bar.  Nowhere to perch downstairs, so I follow the signage advice to find the upstairs bar.   Its locked.  Back down just in time to stand and watch the two talented musicians starting their set.

First Lounge Bar of the Night

Little Room at the Inn

Stags Head, 1 Dame Court

Making my way back across the Liffey, trusting the egg chuckers have either gone to bed or been arrested, and I am nearly in the heart of Temple Bar.

Stags Head

Place available at the bar to observe the comedy bar man run through his full range of tourist teasing japes.   He was rather good at his job, especially when it came to upselling whiskey.   I was tempted but it was a school night.

I need to re-watch Educating Rita and see if I can identify the interior shots.

Bankers, Trinity Street

A nice looking boozer in the heart of the City that I couldn't resist a visit.  However, I was the only punter, which led for a strange atmosphere after the how busy all the other establishments were.

I'll have to try again, earlier in the evening.

The Bankers

Think that's Dublin over for pub blogging, but you never know.   There may be others not found over the three visits.

What a City for pub architecture!

18/02/19 - Discovering more Dublin Pubs

Three years after my last visit, I have about 72 hours in Dublin, with at least 8 of them that can be allocated to pleasure.

Building on my previous crawl, I've used the Internet to find additional recommendations. 

I'm not going to argue with the comprehensive suggestions here - even if I only did a handful.

There's also no point detailing what was purchased.   You can guess and I'm still dreaming of the gentle noise of the tap hiss, the silence of the build and the top up.

Jack Nealons, Capel Street

Always loved the way they're named

Still getting my bearings, as I make my way from Parnell Street to the night life.   This is an authentic introduction to the potential of drinking in Dublin.   It's a finely preserved Georgian building and has been a pub since 1905, when they were made with beauty in mind.   The plan was to make an environment nicer than your home to come and drink in. 

Low lighting and lots of wood

As well as not having my Dublin directional bearings, I haven't got my atmospheric bearing in tune. Three days after my visit, I still cannot tell if the locals were about to fight the Germans or kiss them.  There was a lot of aggressive high fiving, man hugging followed by a 10 minute demonstration of Dublin shadow boxing to a non plussed Teuton. 

I was on edge.   I left before I inadvertently got involved.

The Long Hall, Georges Street

Here's an absolute must visit of a pub.   Licenced since 1766 and now with its Victorian Splendour, following its recent internal refit in 1881.

When its this good, there's no need for modification.

Victorian Drinking at its finest

In, for the Long Hall

If there hadn't have been 22 other recommendations on the guide, I would have spent the rest of the evening perched on my high stool, leaning against the snob bar divide and watching the joy on the other other tourists faces as they entered through the front door.

Alas, there is more work to do.

Cassidy's, West Moreland Street, La Chouffe

Don't try and follow this crawl in order.   I'm only detailing the highlights and new visits on this blog.

I was in high spirits on my 2nd night, having just celebrated the Albion's 94th minute winner in a bar full of Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Lyon and Barcelona fans that all watched goalless drudgery.   In a massive pub with 50+ screens, there was one TV dedicated to the Championship.   Europeans have never seen boinging before.   They looked perplexed.

After such drama, I wanted a proper drinking den, swathed in atmospheric low lighting and selling unusual Belgian beers on draught.

Cassidy's was just this place and apparently famous for Bill Clinton's visit in 1995.   Birmingham has a pub by the canal with a similar claim to fame.

Iggy Pop's Lust for Life came on the jukebox.

It really couldn't have been more perfect.

Cassidys - Handy for the Tram

Here comes Johnny Yen Again....

John Kehoes, South Anne Street

No offence to the other establishments, but I am saving the best to the last in this blog.

What a find John Kehoes is.   Licenced since 1803 and described as a "Country Pub in the Heart of the City".

Better photos than mine can be found on their website.

Looking Good from the Outside

There's plenty to discover inside.   Take your pick from a partitioned ground floor, where there's plenty of nooks and crannie to hide away in or a beautifully ornate to sit at.  Alterntaively, head upstairs for the neon advertised lounge and roof top smoking terrace.

Lengthy enough bar to sit out without causing obstruction

One of the many nooks and crannies to hide away in

This is one of those timeless places - both in terms of its unchanging history and the way that time has no meaning whilst you're sat in there. 

08/09/17 - Howth Head, Dublin

Distance - 5 Miles
Geocaches - 4
Pub - Abbey Tavern, Howth

If Mrs Mappiman had her nefarious way, she would have has us adding more Temple Bar Pubs to the our Dublin Ticklist.

I said we've done enough drinking on the Floating OAP Home that is the Cruise and Maritime Columbus.  Its time to get some fresh air in our lungs.

I had no idea what was at Howth Head, but I knew it was relatively easy to get there on the Dart.  A slow train ride across the Dublin rooftops to get to the end of the line.

Now, I am not going to say its easy to navigate from the Station to the Ben of Howth but the views make it worth it.  We scramble along old tramlines, the back of estate houses and possibly end up trespassing on the Golf course.  It takes a walk abroad to really appreciate the detail on OS Maps.

Views from the Ben of Howth

We explore the heathland, grabbing a Geocache or two and fight our way down the hill to the Coastal Path.

The walking moves from great to spectacular.  A jaw dropping view of Baily Lighthouse and a superb cliff coastal path, that is appealing to all ages and nationality's today.

Baily Lighthouse

We can't believe our luck.  A random walk has turned into an absolute booster.  We even laugh off the drenching the rainstorm provides and are rewarded with a superb ocean based rainbow.

Not the only ones admiring what the rain leave behind

No possibility of an inland short cut, so we follow the headland all the way around.  The scenery keeps on delivering.

Howth Headland

Back in the town and there is a choice of eateries.  Smart Phone based research suggests the Abbey Tavern would appeal to a history loving pub ticker the most.  C16th and former patrons include Katherine Hepburn, John Wayne and Neil Diamond.

If you go, ignore the eye watering price tag on the Dublin Bay Scampi.  It might be the best 20 Euros ever spent.

Our sort of Place

Predictable - both in beverage and what happens after a week at sea with no WiFi

It that good that two coach loads of fellow pensioner cruisers were delivered for an upstairs buffet.

We thought we had escaped.