Courtesy of Dublin Tourism
Hours:
May-September: M-Sa. 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Su. 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; October-April: M-Sa. 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Su. noon-4:30 p.m.
Price:
Adults €9.00 (approx. $11.50), Students/Senior €8 (approx. $10.50), Children (under 12) free admission
Type:
Monuments & Historic Sites, Museums & Galleries
Dublin’s oldest university, Trinity College, was established by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1592 and is synonymous with the University of Ireland. Each year, more than 16,000 students study here, and the college is home to many historical artifacts and texts from Ireland’s history. Today, a student-guided tour lets you visit the cobblestoned campus, learning about the history of the institution as well as its famous architecture. The most celebrated stop on the tour is the Old Library, Ireland’s largest research library, comprised of a long room filled with more than 5 million books and other ancient and rare texts. As part of the tour, an exhibition explores the library’s most famous book and one of Ireland’s great treasures of history, the Book of Kells, an illustrated gospel manuscript created by Celtic monks that dates back to 800 A.D.