Dublin Historic Tour: St. Patrick's Cathedral & Book of Kells
4.7
257 Ratings
St. Patrick’s Park

Discover Dublin’s history with priority access to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Book of Kells, and Dublin Castle. Join our expert guide for an unforgettable tour.

Duration: 3 hours, 30 minutes
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Saint Patrick’s Cathedral - Enjoy Skip the Line access and avoid the long lines for a fully comprehensive tour of Ireland’s most famous Cathedral and Gardens where you will learn about the works of Johnathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral as well as Bram Stoker, author of Dracula and student of the 16th century Trinity College.
  • **Dublin…
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What's Included
  • Entry to the Oldest Vaulted Library in Europe - Book of Kells 360 & Long Room reimagined Experience
  • Skip-the-Line Guinness Storehouse entrance and a pint of Guinness included on the Full Day Option
  • Skip the Line Entry to St Patrick’s Cathedral & Timed Easy Access to Book of Kells
  • Exterior tour of the 13th Century Dublin Castle
  • Optional Upgrade:…
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What's Not Included
  • Hotel Pick Up & Drop Off / Transportation / Food and Drink / Gratitude
  • Interior visit to Dublin Castle
  • Guinness Storehouse entrance is included for guests, who booked the upgrade option
  • Full Day Tour guests will need a single public transportation ticket (Luas)
Additional Information

Embark on a privileged journey through Dublin’s historic center on this exclusive priority timed access tour. Gain entry to iconic landmarks, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where you’ll have ample space to admire its architectural wonders. Next, you’ll enter Trinity College Library to witness the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of…

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Location
St. Patrick’s Park
Bull Alley Street
Meeting Time: 15 minutes before the scheduled start time Meeting Place: St Patrick's Garden, Bull Alley St, Dublin, Ireland Meeting Point: Meet your guide at the fountain in the middle of St Patrick's Garden
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.7
(257 Ratings)
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Kristin
May 29, 2025
Great Tour, Informative - This was a well done tour. However, there were 17 people and the guide did not have a microphone. As a result I only heard about 75% of the information. Sometimes it was because I couldn’t sit close enough to the guide. Other times taller people were between me and the speaker.
Review provided by Viator
Scubalizard
May 28, 2025
Well worth the price for all the information provided - Great tour, guide had a lot of information and unique stories. He pointed out several places that we would not have known about if we were on our own.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Troy_w
May 28, 2025
Wonderful tour and guide - Great overview of several key Dublin historical sites. Tour guide Samantha was wonderful. She provided so much rich historical and cultural context to the tour and was able to answer our questions. She even made personal recommendations for restaurants and pubs to visit after the tour and recommended other activities. Very friendly and engaging and a pleasure to talk with. We highly recommend the tour and Samantha as a guide.
Review provided by Viator
Donna_s
May 27, 2025
Great job Rory - Rory our tour guide was real thorough organized and entertaining. He was acknowledgable and very kind.
Review provided by Viator
Joann_m
May 27, 2025
Amazing tour! - Our tour guide, Dermot, entertained us with amusing stories and wealth of knowledge about the history of St Patrick’s church, the book of kells and the old library at trinity college. It was a fascinating tour, one I highly recommend!
Review provided by Viator
William_r
May 26, 2025
Rory was great! A... - Rory was great! A knowledgeable and fun guide. Saint Patricks and The Book of Kells are must-sees. This tour was worth the time 100%
Review provided by Viator
Jennifer
May 26, 2025
Amazing experience - The Tour was amazing Paul was an excellent guide who had a lot of history and knowledge to share . Highly recommend this tour
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Greg_k
May 29, 2025
Book of Kells is amazing. - Beautiful scenery. Little disappointed in the fact we didn’t know there’s only a very small portion of Dublin Castle that remains. Tour guide was great and very knowledgable. Book of Kells worth it all. What an amazing piece of history. Hurry up or you won’t get to see if before books are gone.
Review provided by Viator
Dianee221
May 26, 2025
Can't recommend - This just isn't a tour I could recommend. First, the guide seemed very unprepared and considering the amount of time he had done this tour, very uninformed as well. It was difficult to hear him as outside noises (lawn mower running near by) and other tours, especially in the Cathedral added difficulties. Several questions asked by the group, couldn't be answered or others would look up the information and offer it up. There was no spark in the presentation or real interest in the quality of the tour. The Dublin Castle tour, truly should have been noted is only outside. Personally I think the audio tour offered by the Cathedral and going to the Book of Kells without this group would have been more informative and interesting. I do quite a few tours, this is the only one I have written a poor review about.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Meaghan_j
May 29, 2025
Left Early. Save your money!!! - To start, let me say that St Patrick’s cathedral was great and our guide, Seamus, seemed to have a wealth of knowledge. I say “seemed to” however, because most of that knowledge and potential for learning about irelands history/culture/politics was lost on us due to several logistical issues and failures, among them being: 1. We did not have any audio sets/ear pieces to better hear our guide. Seamus was not the loudest speaker, and we were often in noisy areas outside so many of us were straining to hear him at all and eventually gave up. I also believe the tour could have been an hour shorter if we had headsets because then we would not have had to stop every 10-20 min and uncomfortably stand around for 15 min while the guide told us more information. It would have been more efficient and a better experience to be able to keep walking and simply listening to the guide explain history and politics while we walked, which could have been done with headsets. 2. There were no scheduled bathroom/coffee breaks on this 3.5 hour tour. I went on a 3 hour walking tour in Belfast and we not only had audio headsets, but the guide scheduled a 15 min bathroom/cafe break halfway through which was much needed. Seamus did not do this, and when asked about a bathroom break, we were told we should have asked earlier and that “maybe” we could use the bathroom in trinity college, but made no effort to hurry us to any area where a bathroom might be. 3. While this is obviously advertised as a walking tour, what we did not expect was how much standing without anywhere to sit we would have to be doing. The guide seemed to pick very inconvenient places to stop and talk for 15 min and I could tell many on the tour, including myself, were uncomfortable and would have appreciated a place to sit or a shaded area (or covered area when raining). We would also stop in areas without any photo opportunity, then power walk through areas where we wanted to stop to take photos. 4. What is not advertised about trinity college is that the long room no longer has most of its books. Usually it is filled with over 200,000 books, but now only has about 16,000 while they are restoring the rest of the books after being worried they might all burn up in a fire after notre dame. So only the first 2-3 rows have books, and then rest of the library is completely empty and they did not even put “fake” books or anything else in its place. To say it was disappointing is a gross understatement. On top of that, the Book of Kells was highly disappointing as well, only opened to one page and not even the most famous or decorated one. We were also rushed through the book of kells experience and were not able to fully enjoy the exhibit or audio guide that came with it. 5. The Dublin Castle was also very disappointing. We briefly walked through the courtyard and garden, but did not go inside any of the buildings! Basically, save your money. There is a free audio guide with the €11 entry to st Patrick’s and free guided tours inside that are great. Dublin castle is nothing special and you can walk around for free at your own pace also. And trinity college was a let down and waste of money too, but if you still want to go, the tickets for that aren’t as much as this tour was and there is a free audio guide you can download on your phone that was very comprehensive. Highly disappointed in this tour, left early simply so we could finally go To the bathroom, and would not recommend.
Review provided by Viator
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Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).
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