I had been to Dublin a couple of times before, both with parents when I was considerably younger than I am now and also while studying at university (Liverpool, since you asked) when I was merely largely younger than I am now. For my wife, this British Isles cruise on Regal Princess was a chance to actually tick Ireland off the visited list for the first time and while Cobh had been nice enough it was Dublin that she was most looking forward to. The liveliness, the friendliness.

If you’ve never read any of my travelogues before or the About page then don’t worry because not many people have, but you might not then know that when we cruise (our preferred from of travel) we do like to take excursions when hitting new places. For this cruise on Regal Princess, because it was pretty close to home for the most part and targeting a lot of American tourists, we found it difficult to justify the cost of ship tours, particularly seeing as language and general customs would not be a barrier to us getting around. We therefore did our own thing at most of the port stops, but in Dublin that wasn’t the case for a couple of reasons: firstly, we could see that the distance from the port of Dun Laoghaire to Dublin was not inconsiderable so that meant shuttle buses and potentially long queues with a lot of people doing the same; secondly, we saw an excursion that included a short tour in Dublin, some free time in Dublin, and a visit to Powerscourt Estate, and we had reasons for wanting to see that latter location. Secret reasons. So, figuring that we could tick off some sights, have time to see the Book of Kells, have a Guinness (I know, so clichéd), and not be clock-watching for the bus back we booked this excursion.

The usual tour process for Princess Cruises commenced with a gathering aboard, trundling down to the tender boat, tendering into the port, hopping aboard the tour bus, and making our way into the Irish capital. It was on the bus that we were told that most of Ireland was closed for the day thanks to the bank holiday. Bugger. Still, shouldn’t affect what we wanted to do, we thought. And then we were told that students were protesting about the treatment of Palestinians by the genocidal Israeli regime so the Book of Kells was off-limits for anyone who wanted to look at it. Bugger, again. We supported the students and the Palestinians, and we still do, but it was bloody annoying to effectively visit Ireland for two days and find it shut.

Anyway, on with the guided tour part. We got off the bus at Merrion Square, a Georgian garden square dating from the late eighteenth century, and the townhouses on three of its sides that we’d be taking more of a look at (than we wanted) all date from the same period. First, though, we had pointed out to us St Stephen’s Church, known as the Pepper Canister Church for obvious reasons, and the statue of the engineer William Dargan, designer and builder of large parts of Ireland’s railway system and several bridges, one of which was in the city.

The main purpose of this visit to the square was to admire the Georgian buildings and doors that have achieved a level of fame of their own, and yes, they were very nice, but once you’ve seen a few then do you really need to see more? Apparently, on this tour, you do, and so we did, and it seemed to go on and on. Some of this might have been my general feeling of grumpiness at what was shaping up to be a disappointing visit to Dublin.

Some of the tour also touched on famous inhabitants of the houses over the years, with the most notable being Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats, but there seemed a lot more about the door designs and colours than I think most people were interested in. I like architecture but this wasn’t described as an architectural excursion and you could sense some fidgeting amongst the passengers after a while.

As Merrion Square was where we’d need to meet back for the bus to take us onto the afternoon’s part of the excursion we were then given the option of heading off for some free time on our own, but as the guide was heading in the direction we wanted to walk anyway we tagged along with the portion of the group who’d remained for a bit.

The modern building below is the library attached to Trinity College. Knowing that behind it, in another building, the Book of Kells was laughing at us not being able to see it was not enjoyable.

Lovely human being Taylor Swift was due to visit Dublin as part of her Eras Tour the following year and we saw a dad and his young daughter stringing up some temporary sheeting to start work on some artwork we assumed was for it on the street. We’d see the nearly-finished piece when we came back past this point later on.

The Tart with the Cart is the local name for the Molly Malone statue, the point at which we decided to explore a little more on our own with what little time we had. As is the way with statues like this all around the world there’s a tendency to rub parts, for luck in most cases, or because people are generally perverted little oiks who objectify women in this particular instance.

We continued towards Temple Bar because it’s apparently a fairly popular tourist trap if it’s open. Just on the outskirts of this neighbourhood an interesting sculpture caught my eye. This is the Tree of Gold (or Crann an Óir, and don’t ask me how to pronounce that), commissioned by Ireland’s Central Bank as a public artwork to commemorate Ireland receiving European City of Culture status in 1991.

Temple Bar sits on the south bank of the River Liffey so we had a chance to see both of these Dublin landmarks (okay, one’s more a watermark, but you know what I mean), and there was a lot of colourful street art around, which we always enjoy. We were never going to get the full feel of the place on an overcast Monday afternoon when nearly everything was closed but on the plus side we also didn’t get robbed blind at any of the pubs there.

We had time to stop somewhere for a drink and some food – the excursion did not include a meal despite its reasonably long duration – and we figured we’d head back towards Merrion Square where we’d seen an open pub on the corner just so that we wouldn’t be pressed for time getting back to the bus. The Taylor Swift artwork was coming along well.

The pub we stopped at was called The Sin Bin – a sporting reference, as you could probably tell – and it was large, clean, but understandably a bit soulless there with some perfunctory service when we popped in as we were a couple of maybe eight people in the place. My wife opted for a cider while I fulfilled our legal obligations and ordered a Guinness and they were both okay, but nothing wonderful, and we’ve had better of both back home in England many times. The food we ordered, however, was excellent, and huge. We struggled to finish these plates between us.

Before the bus turned up to pick us up from the corner of Merrion Square I grabbed a quick shot of a sculpture of its most famous former resident.

In the next post in this British Isles cruise series we’ll be concluding our tour with a visit to Powerscourt Estate and Gardens.

We like country estates and gardens so it should be no surprise to see us picking this particular tour option from those available on this port stop, but anyone who knows us in real life will know the real reason we wanted to visit Powerscourt Estate and Gardens. You don’t know us in real life, though, so I’m afraid I can’t tell you. Ooh! Secrecy! And on this, my site, where I tell you things you don’t need to know or don’t want to know all the time!?

Powerscourt Estate stands on the site of a former thirteenth century castle although much of what’s there today, both in the buildings and the formal and landscaped gardens, owes its look to extensive changes undertaken in the eighteenth century and renovations in the 1990s after a serious fire in the 1970s. The Palladian architecture and style of gardens were very familiar to us with lots in common with many of the National Trust properties we’d visited over the years in England.

We didn’t spend a lot of time in the main building as there wasn’t a whole lot to see there with the gardens being the main draw for this visit. Actually, one of the main draws of the estate is the famous Powerscourt Waterfall, Ireland’s second highest, and something we’d assumed we’d be able to see. But, following the theme of the day in Ireland – mild disappointment – we were told that it was possible to walk to it but not within the time limit we had for our visit. More on that time limit later.

This post is therefore mainly photographs from our wander around the gardens with a few elements pointed out. If you like landscape and formal gardens then it’s a fabulous place to take a stroll.

We started off above the Triton Lake with views down to it and some lovely landscape sights across the countryside.

The black and white pebbles arranged to form patterns reminded us of the Risseu we’d seen while visiting the Ligurian region of Italy in 2019, and particularly our trip to Camogli.

We first entered Tower Valley, named for the tower within it, Pepperpot Tower, itself named for the condiment container after which it was designed. Yes, really. Scenes from the TV series The Tudors were filmed here, although a great many TV series and films can claim to have used some portion of Powerscourt Estate as a shooting location over the years.

A meandering, downward-sloping walk along trails and past a variety of trees, bushes, and flowers brought us above the gorgeous Japanese Gardens. This was easily the prettiest and most interesting part of Powerscourt Gardens although the time of year and general overcast conditions of the day might have accentuated its vibrancy.

Fans of mossy grottos – that’s everybody – will enjoy the mossy grotto just off the Japanese Gardens.

We walked in a broadly circular route, taking us around the far side of the lower lake where we could look back up towards the building that we’d entered. The trees and some of the views through them were genuinely spectacular from here.

I can’t say we were expecting to see a pet cemetery on the grounds of Powerscourt Estate and if I had expected it then I’d have also been expecting to find it a little creepy, but it was actually quite heartwarming to see the names and dates and some of the writing on the grave markers on this small plot of land.

Another lake brought us to a small formal garden area adjoining the main building at the top of the estate and gardens and brought this walk to an end.

Time limits. Time. Time and excursions. There’s either never enough or there’s too much, and this day’s excursion as a whole was a great example of this problem. Of course you have to compromise when you’re on a group tour but we weren’t alone in thinking this while we waited for our bus to return because we got talking to fellow passengers who said the same thing. Our conclusion from the full day of first visiting Dublin, having free time there, then heading off on this excursion to Powerscourt Estate and Gardens was that we could have done with perhaps half an hour more in Dublin and half an hour less at the gardens. The gardens were lovely but we’d seen all we could really see well within the amount of time we had to spend and ended up just hanging around at the end. We had too much time at Powerscourt for what we could admire in the gardens, yet not enough to get out to the waterfall and back, and we felt that with this in mind we would have appreciated longer in Dublin to perhaps hit a museum.

But we did enjoy Powerscourt Estate and Gardens, and later in the year with more colour and interest around and the likelihood of a warmer day and slower walking then the time there might have felt more suitable and made the cruise excursion overall feel better-balanced.

In the next short post in this Regal Princess British Isles cruise travelogue series there are some brief views of Dún Laoghaire as we tender back to the ship – and some thoughts about that – along with the evening meal aboard as we head off towards the next port of call, Belfast.

There was a fair old queue to get back onto the tender boats to the cruise ship because the cruise lines do like to arrange for as many tours as possible to finish at the same time for some perverted reason. But, when we did finally reach the front of the queue it was to find one boat had just left and another just arrived so that gave us the chance to sit up on top if we wanted. I wanted. My wife did not because it was cold so she stayed below.

I’d initially thought that the modern concrete building in the photo below and the tower were all one thing, and assumed it was all a fancy, brutalist church from the 60s. In fact, the sloping structure in the foreground belongs to the library and cultural centre, built in the early 2000s and opened to the public in late 2014, while the tower is that of a former church and now maritime museum. Just the sort of thing we’d visit on a return trip.

It was a fairly slow ride back to Regal Princess on the tender boat so that the breeze and choppy waves didn’t cause too much trouble for those aboard. As expected, it was cold on the top of the boat but the views were fabulous. One of our fellow passengers was up there in just his t-shirt and was definitely braving it out.

There’s not a lot to report for the evening on the ship as there wasn’t much to see in terms of sailaway views from our anchored position off the coast. Because we’d eaten so much at lunch in Dublin, however, we decided to skip the main dining room meal and take advantage of one of the free “casual dining” options that are included when you purchase the Princess Plus drinks package (and we always do). And so it was that we enjoyed a meal at Alfredo’s with a glass of wine (or two).

In the next post in this British Isles cruise series we’ll be hitting Belfast, and unlike the first occasion three years earlier when we took an excursion, this time we’d be exploring on our own and would start with a walk to and visit of the fabulous Crumlin Road Gaol.