Docklands

From working docks to a new city quarter

East of O'Connell Bridge, the Liffey opens out towards the harbour, and Dublin shows its newest face. Where docks, warehouses and gasworks once stood until as recently as the 1980s, a completely new quarter has grown up since the 1990s: glass architecture, waterfront promenades and the Convention Centre with its tilted glass cylinder. The overture is the Custom House of 1791, James Gandon's neoclassical customs house, which mediates elegantly between old and new Dublin. Further downriver, Santiago Calatrava's Samuel Beckett Bridge arcs across the Liffey, its pylon silhouette modelled on a reclining harp.

Emigrants, theatre and Silicon Docks

Inside the old CHQ bonded warehouse, the EPIC emigration museum tells the story of the Irish diaspora, and moored outside is the Jeanie Johnston, a replica of a famine-era emigrant ship. On the south side, the quarter around Grand Canal Dock has earned the nickname Silicon Docks: Google, Meta and other tech giants have their European headquarters here, alongside Daniel Libeskind's Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and Grand Canal Square with its red illuminated light poles. At lunchtime and after work, staff fill the cafés and restaurants along the quays; at weekends things are noticeably quieter.

Practical tips for visiting

The best way to take in the Docklands is on a walk along both banks: from Custom House across the Samuel Beckett Bridge to Grand Canal Dock, around an hour with stops for photos. If you have more time, extend the walk along the Great South Wall, which reaches far out into Dublin Bay and ends at the red-and-white Poolbeg Lighthouse, with views back over the city and the striped chimneys of the old power station. The Royal Canal Way also starts at the northern edge of the Docklands. In the evening, the quarter is especially worth combining with a show at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.