Dun Laoghaire, Dublin

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Sometimes it is a good idea to leave the city and dust and noise behind, and make a half day or day trip to some nice place. A great place to visit is the cosy little town of Dun Laoghaire, which is located a short commuter train trip to the south of Dublin. Heh, try to listen to how locals pronounce the name of the town :) I at least was lucky I knew where I was going to, and had seen the town name in map...

Take the Dart-train, it is handy, cheap and fast enough. I bought a 4-day Dublin Explorer - ticket to save money. Some years ago it cost ten Irish pounds and it was valid in the trains and in Dublin buses.

Dun Laoghaire is an idyllic coastal town with very calm and tranquil athomsphere. It is an ideal location for having a coffee or lunch break too. There are plenty of beautiful pastel coloured houses and lovely flowers planted all over.

We made it a bit further away and walked quite a lot; we walked uphills in the fine and expensive Killiney residential area. We passed by the house of Bono (U2) too!

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Dún Laoghaire (to be pronounced "Dun Leeree") is Dublin's harbour.
It's a very nice place. The day I went there was windy and maybe it rained too. But, apart from the weather, it's a worth visiting place.

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Dun Laoghaire is a popular place to go for a Sunday stroll along the pier and watch the boats.

It used to be known as Kingstown back in the British colonial days and you can still see the Victorian architecture around the streets.

D.L. has always had a rather posh reputation, very genteel and sedate kind of place.

It is about 10 miles away from Dublin city centre but very easy to get to by the Dart. If you want to go out of the city for a couple of hours, you could happily spend them here. It has plenty of good bars and restuarants like Mao and Rolys and it is near Sandycove beach and the Martello tower.

We had a one day bus pass that we bought at the airport at 6 AM, this was late afternoon in Dublin, maybe 5 or 6 o'clock we thought we would use our free ride to check out Dublin on the bus. OK the joke was on us, after we were on board we learned the bus was heading for Dun Laoghaire which was I am going to say a 45 minute bus ride. Oh well, the young man that informed us of this told us to go enjoy the beautiful harbor and have a nice dinner. Well it was pitch black dark with no moon at all so the harbor was pretty invisible but the town itself was nice. We had a nice traditional dinner of cabbage, potatoes, and bacon that was pretty nice. We caught the bus back to Dublin and went to the pub down the street. Not a bad day.

Bonus points for those who can pronounce this ludicrously outrageous name. Anyway, despite the name, Dun Laoghaire is a delightful place. There are some nice restaurants and a stroll along the pier is a good way to spend some time.

Take the DART suburban train and make a trip to the ferry harbour of Dun Laoghaire at the southshore of Dublin Bay. Dun Laoghaire has about 55.000 inhabitants and is the harbour for the ferries to Holyhead in Wales. Enjoy a stroll along the Promenade and down the Pier.

Dún Laoghaire gets it's name from the Irish Translation, Fort (Dún) of Laoghaire. King Laoghaire was the ancient High King of Ireland before the Vikings arrived. When the English came they renamed the town Dunlary (Dunleary) to suit the English tongue.
A very quick and cheap 2.6 Euro, 15 min DART ride out from Tara Street station.
All in all, very pleasant, nice pub called Weirs (I think that's the spelling) and it's very nicely done out.
However, it was a lot more commercial than I had anticipated, plus as I had only travelled out by DART and not driven, some of the places I'd have liked to have gone to see were a little beyond walking distance, especially as I had twisted my toe by falling flat on my face in Temple Bar the night before! I suspect there's a lot more there than I had the opportunity to see.
Places of interest include James Joyce Museum, Maritime Museum, the great East Pier. If you get stuck or lost, the Tourist Information Centre is right in the Ferry Port. You can't miss it!