It’s difficult to get off the beaten track in a busy city like Dublin – but we managed to find some secret delights away from the hustle and bustle.
Not all tourists want to follow in the foot steps of everyone else who has visited the Irish capital.
That’s why we have scoured the back streets and alleys to come up with a few places that are less known.
So, if you follow our advice, you can find some places that are perhaps a little more mysterious and exciting than the brightly tourist traps on the main roads and squares of Dublin when you are making a list of things to do.
If you are visiting the city with a loved one, especially around February 14th, then look in on the shrine of St Valentine – the one that sparked the world’s romance.
Love and romance
St Valentine was executed and buried in Rome in the third century – supposedly on February 14th.
The Pope gifted his remains to the Irish people in 1835, when they were moved to Dublin and reburied in the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Whitefriar Street.
Next, write a letter to God, or to your past self or a confession and find Dame Lane on a map, a block or so away from City Hall.
Stroll down the lane and look carefully for a red mail box with a blue roof on one of the walls and drop your letter in the post box.
Hidden delights
The box is part of a living art project from Dublin artist Sarah Bracken, who collects the letters and sorts them into themes for publication in books and online.
Thousands of visitors troop around the Guinness Storehouse or Irish Whiskey Museum, but for drinkers who like cocktail, there’s the Vintage Cocktail Club.
It’s almost like they don’t want you to visit – the entrance is a daunting black door stencilled with VCC.
Inside, the candle-lit cocktail bar is a throwback to the past where you can wine and dine in the style of the 1920s.
You can find the bar in Crown Alley, Temple Bar.