From North King Street North, turn south and walk down the right-hand side of Bow Street. As you walk you will pass the back of a Capuchin Friary on your left. After passing Friary Avenue on your right, continue to reach the Old Jameson Distillery entrance on the right. Whiskey is no longer made here, but visitors are given a free glass at the end of the tour, and the distillery also offers tasting sessions during which you can sample the various styles of whiskey made by Ireland’s best-known distillers. The guided tour explains the intricacies and history of whiskey-making, which the Irish claim to have invented. Knowledge of the distilling process seems to have been brought to Ireland from the Islamic world by monks, who learned the skill from the Muslims who invented it. In the Middle East and North Africa, the process was used to distil essential oils from flowers, fruit and nuts to make perfumes and incense, but the Irish seem to have been the first to use it to make a potent drink. Jameson’s began distilling here in the 1780s, and the tour shows you some of the traditional whiskey-making equipment, including copper stills and the oak casks in which whiskey is matured. 

Leaving the distillery turn right on to Bow Street, where you will pass an old copper bell on the left-hand side, then turn right on New Church Street to reach Smithfield, the site of Dublin’s former meat and livestock market. The cobbled rectangle opened in 1664 as a cattle and horse market (like its namesake in London). In the early 21st century, however, it has seen remarkable gentrification and is now a mix of up-market houses and apartments, shops, studios and galleries, which is barely recognisable as the Smithfield of yesteryear. A horse market is still held at Smithfield but there is mounting pressure for the market to be moved or closed altogether. In 1964, Smithfield stood in for locations in Eastern Europe during the filming of John le Carré’s film The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The 220ft (67m) distillery chimney, now converted into a viewing tower, is a prominent landmark here offering panoramic views across Dublin as far north as the Mourne Mountains and as far south as County Wicklow.

Leave Smithfield from its south end and walk down short, narrow Arran Street to Arran Quay, on the north bank of the Liffey. Do not cross over, but turn right and walk along the quays (first Arran Quay, then Ellis Quay), with the river on your left, passing Mellowes Bridge then James Joyce Bridge on your left. Just before the end of Ellis Quay, with Rory O’More Bridge ahead of you, turn right up Ellis Street then turn immediately left into Benburb Street. The entrance to the National Museum of Ireland’s Decorative Arts and History Section is one short block up, on your right, on the north side of Benburb Street at Collins Barracks. This former military building (renamed, following independence, in memory of Michael Collins, commander of the Irish Free State forces during the Civil War) has been converted into an outstanding museum. The collections trace Ireland’s social and cultural history through the centuries, and includes silver, glass and pottery, furniture and folk costumes. It also features an exhibition of military history, ‘Soldiers and Chiefs’, outlining how war and resistance have shaped Ireland’s culture from 1550 to the 21^st century. The exhibition covers three themes: Irish soldiers at home, Irish soldiers abroad, and Irish soldiers in the 21^st century. Irish noblemen and their followers served as soldiers of fortune in the armies of England’s enemies, France and Spain, from the mid-16th century and made common cause with Scottish Jacobites against William of Orange in the strife of 1688–90 and the Scottish risings of 1715 and 1745. A descendant of one of these ‘Wild Geese’, Macmahon, even became a Marshal of France and President of the French Republic. But Irishmen also served their English masters loyally in the battles of the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, Britain’s colonial wars, and World War I. After independence, although Ireland remained firmly neutral, many Irish volunteers fought in the British Army during World War II, and Irish soldiers have also served with distinction as members of UN peacekeeping forces in many conflicts around the world. 

Retrace your steps to the Liffey, cross Rory O’More Bridge and walk south on the left-hand side of Watling Street. The Guinness Brewery occupies a vast site stretching from Victoria Quay on the south side of the Liffey to James’s Street. Walk for 273yds (250m) and, at the foot of Watling Street, cross Thomas Street where you will see the Guinness name above an arch, turn left and then right into Crane Street and note the signs for Guinness Storehouse ®. Walk down, cross Rainsford Street, then turn right onto Bellevue, then Market Street to the Guinness Storehouse®. This seven-storey building is conspicuous because of the circular glass-sided Gravity®Bar (only accessible as part of visit to Guinness Storehouse ®) on its roof. Arthur Guinness began making the black brew that is Ireland’s most famous drink here at St James’s Gate in 1759. Guinness is now exported all over the world in kegs, cans and bottles and is also brewed in several other countries, including the UK. In West Africa, it has a reputation as a libido enhancer; in Malaysia it is regarded as a healthful elixir; and as recently as the 1970s some British hospitals gave recuperating patients a bottle a day to aid their recovery. But as any Dubliner will tell you, unless it’s made in Dublin from true Liffey water, it’s not the real thing. A visit to the Guinness Storehouse® will make you an instant expert. 

Leave the brewery, turn right and follow Market Street to Grand Canal Place, which is shaped like an inverted horseshoe. Follow it as it curves to your left, then turn right on to Echlin Street, take the first left on to James’s Street. Cross the road and walk west. Take Bow Lane West, which forks off James’s Street to the right. Follow this as far as Bow Bridge, then almost immediately turn right on to Irwin Street. This short street leads you to Military Road. Cross this to enter the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The museum’s home is a gracious 17th-century building with a green copper spire, set in formal gardens. This was the Royal Hospital, designed in 1680 by Sir William Robinson and strongly influenced by the architecture of Les Invalides in Paris. Like Les Invalides, it was built as a hospice for wounded or crippled soldiers. Its classical interior now houses a growing collection of challenging contemporary art and provides a venue for visiting exhibitions. 

Walk west through the grounds of the museum and exit through the arch of the Richmond Tower to the South Circular Road where you cross over and enter Inchicore Road. Pass the courthouse on the corner on your left, then turn left into Kilmainham Gaol (access by guided tour only). This enormous prison is important in Irish political history. Between its opening in 1796 and its closure as a jail in 1924, many of the leaders of the Irish independence movement were incarcerated here and some were executed on the premises.

Return to Inchicore Road where buses 13, 68 and 69 take you back to the city centre.