Christ Church Cathedral

Christ Church Cathedral crowns the low hill where Viking Dublin began, and it is the oldest working building in the city. A church was founded here around 1030 by Sitric Silkenbeard, the Norse king of Dublin, and after the Anglo-Normans arrived in 1170 it was rebuilt in stone under the patronage of Strongbow, the Norman lord whose invasion began eight centuries of English involvement in Ireland. Inside, the nave has a grand, slightly austere beauty, with soaring arches, a dramatic leaning north wall that has tilted out of true since the Middle Ages, and fine Victorian floor tiles. Strongbow's tomb, or at least a medieval tomb long identified with him, lies in the nave and was once the place where Dublin's business deals were sealed. The real treasure lies below: the crypt, among the largest medieval crypts in Britain and Ireland, runs the full length of the building, and it now houses the Treasures of Christ Church exhibition, with gleaming church silver, manuscripts, costumes from a television drama filmed here, and the cathedral's most famous residents — a mummified cat and rat, found trapped in an organ pipe where the cat had chased the rat and neither escaped. The entry ticket covers the cathedral, the crypt and the exhibition, and leaflets are available in several languages. Allow forty minutes to an hour, and listen for the bells, which are among the most celebrated in Ireland.

Christ Church and St Patrick's are a famously odd pair: two medieval cathedrals of the same church, a short walk apart, a legacy of medieval rivalry between the city and the archbishops. Christ Church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough in the Church of Ireland, and like its neighbour it was rescued from decay in the Victorian era, in this case by a distiller, Henry Roe, who funded a heavy restoration in the 1870s under the architect George Edmund Street. Street also designed the elegant covered bridge that leaps across Winetavern Street to the old Synod Hall, now home to Dublinia, a family-friendly exhibition on Viking and medieval Dublin that combines well with the cathedral.

Visiting well: the cathedral is open most days, with shorter hours on Sundays because of services, and last admission is shortly before closing. Choral services, sung by the cathedral choir, are open to everyone and are free, and hearing them under the nave's arches is an experience in itself. The crypt is atmospheric rather than spooky, and children love the cat and rat, so it works well for families, especially combined with Dublinia next door. Allow about forty minutes for the cathedral alone and twice that with the crypt exhibition read properly.

Around it: Christ Church stands at the top of the old city, a few minutes uphill from Temple Bar and the Liffey quays. Dublin Castle lies just east — though it is closed to visitors for the rest of 2026 while it hosts Ireland's EU Council presidency, reopening in January 2027 — and the Liberties start immediately to the west. Walk south down Patrick Street to St Patrick's Cathedral, or west along Thomas Street toward the Guinness Storehouse. Across the river, Smithfield and the Jameson distillery are ten minutes on foot, which makes Christ Church the natural hinge between a morning of medieval Dublin and an afternoon of whiskey. The cathedral also has a share in the city's proudest musical moment: its choir joined that of St Patrick's for the first performance of Handel's Messiah in 1742, in a music hall on Fishamble Street, just downhill toward the river, where a plaque marks the site. To make the most of the hill, buy the combined ticket with Dublinia and walk between the two across the covered bridge over the street.