Dublin Literary Pub Crawl

When we finished our pints in the Gravity Bar we headed out the Temple Bar area of Dublin for a literary pub crawl. I was nervous about this tour; the description sounded a little cheesy, and I’ve been on enough cheesy tours. Luckily for me, it wasn’t.

Dublin Literary Pub Crawl
Dublin, Ireland

There were 2 men conducting the tour, and periodically they would act out little vignettes of Irish authors and their works. These I found quite funny, but I’m not sure everyone on the tour got all the jokes—only a few of us were laughing. I particularly enjoyed their interpretation of some of Oscar Wilde’s personal correspondence. Our guides also sang during the tour, and that was a lovely taste of Irish musical culture.

We toured 4 pubs that night, just a fraction of the over 800 pubs in Dublin. Since the tour cannot possibly cover this many, there is an accompanying book that gives the history of more famous pubs in Dublin, as well as background information on Irish authors and poets. We bought the book and had it signed by the author, one of the stars of the tour that night.

The tour concluded with a little trivia quiz about Dublin and her authors—there was even a prize! It was a close race, but in the end, only one person could win: me! I won a free Pub Crawl t-shirt! WOO!! I had a lot of fun on this tour (even before I won the t-shirt) and I would definitely take it again.

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Dublin Literary Pub Crawl

Temple Bar

My Goodness, My Guinness

The Guinness Storehouses
Dublin, Ireland

Our first stop in Dublin was the Guinness Storehouse. The center is located in a 7-storey building though which you guide yourself. Each entry ticket comes with a pint voucher. There are several places to redeem the voucher, but the best place is probably the Gravity Bar on the 7th floor; it provides unimpeded vistas of Dublin. The visitor center might be the tallest building in Dublin.

Gravity Bar Views
Dublin, Ireland

This visit was fun and informative, but I thought it was a bit expensive. I also would have liked to see the brewery process in action. The exhibits featured museum-worthy pieces of machinery and videos of the historic brewing process. Still, we had a good time and it’s a fun place to spend an afternoon.
There are 3 cafes at the storehouse, and their menus all feature dishes that are made with Guinness—a tasty theme. Even more interesting . . . there are recipes for some of these delicious dishes on their website.

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Guinness Storehouse

Guinness RecipesWebcam Views from Gravity Bar

The Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher
County Clare, Ireland

We stopped for lunch at the Roadside Tavern brewpub before we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher. There aren’t many microbreweries in Ireland—Guinness has a pretty dominant market share—but we sought them out. When we walked in, we were immediately brought into conversation with a couple of regulars. Ireland has the friendliest people of any country we’ve visited; the Irish are always happy to shoot the breeze over a pint. On our way out of the bar we noticed a Great Lakes Brewing sticker; I was not the first Ohioan to visit this pub.

Don't climb over the wall and fall off the cliffs to your death
Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland

Sated, we drove to the Cliffs of Moher. It was like being on the edge of the world; the cliffs rise above the sea some 700 feet, with thousands of miles of ocean on the horizon. The visuals are so dramatic they’ve been featured in several films, including The Princess Bride (the Cliffs of Insanity) and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (Voldemort’s Horcrux Cave).

There are tour options that include boat trips around the cliffs and to the nearby Aran Islands. However, there was an epic storm blowing in with hurricane strength winds, so we decided to stay safely on land, and out of the rough seas.

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Roadside Tavern Brewpub

Cliffs of Moher

Movies featuring the Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher Cruises

Great Lakes Brewing

A Weekend on the Emerald Isle

Tullamore DEW Old Bonded Warehouse
Tullamore, Irealnd

On our first day in Ireland we drove across the entire country, coast to coast, and it only took 3 hours—Ireland’s not that wide.  We were driving from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher. Along the way we stopped off in Tullamore to visit the Tullamore DEW whisky distillery. While in Scotland, I discovered that I liked Scotch, so I was eager to try some Irish whisky. Not particularly liking scotch, Joe was not as eager. There are many distilleries around Ireland. We chose Tullamore because it was on our route from Dublin to County Clare, it was cheaper than the Jameson tour in Dublin, and we’d heard of it.




Placemat for Tasting 3 Whisky Blends
Tullamore, Ireland

The Tullamore Dew visitor center opens at 9:30am and we arrived slightly before 10:00am. We inquired about tour times, but the text tour wasn’t until 10:20am. Since we didn’t have the time to wait around 30 minutes for an hour long tour to start we bought a tasting ticket instead for only €5.00. Before our tasting started we watched a little video about the history of the whisky, and then were walked through the museum on a personal mini-tour. Next, we tasted 3 blends of whiskies that were vastly different from scotch. They were also generous pours, Joe—the driver—didn’t finish his. Don’t worry though, no whisky was wasted on this tour; I finished his too.

The tour ended in the gift shop where all kinds of Tullamore DEW merchandise and whisky was available for purchase. There are 2 blends of their whisky that is only available in their visitor center. We wanted to buy a bottle, but I was hesitant to spend the requisite amount on whisky we hadn’t even tasted. Luckily, they had just opened a bottle at the bar, so I was able to taste it there with some of the bar maids. The 3 of us pronounced it delicious—Joe would just have to believe us—and we bought the bottle.

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Visit the Tullamore Dew Old Bonded Warehouse
Tullamore DEW Whiskies