Dublin for first-time visitors

Must-see attractions

Dublin's must-sees are small in scale and walkable in succession — castles, cathedrals, theatres, a parliament building, a monument, a remembrance garden — and the trick to seeing them well is choosing a half-dozen and walking between them rather than ticking all twelve in one day. We have ranked them in the order a first-timer should encounter them: the castle, the spire, the two cathedrals on the south side, the building that houses the Irish parliament, the courts, the theatres, the cemetery, the garden. Most of them cluster within easy walking distance of each other; Glasnevin Cemetery is the one outlier worth the bus or the longer walk. None of them asks for a long visit. All of them reward an unhurried one. This list assumes you have two days, a tolerance for rain, and the patience to skip the obvious distractions other guides over-praise.