Back in March, Ella and I spent a whirlwind 48 hours in Dublin for the Trinity College Dublin open day.  2024 is a year full of university visits for us – I still can’t quite believe we’re at this point and that my eldest girl, the one who made me a mama, will be flying the nest next year.  Finding the right university for her to study at is key and so we’re on a mission to go to as many open days as possible to discover which one she feels most comfortable in and can genuinely see herself attending for the next three or four years.

Uni Visits

We squeezed in two university open day visits at the end of last year in 2023.  We spent three days in Edinburgh (uni visit #1) in October and a day in Birmingham in November (uni visit #2, although there’s no blog post for that one as it was only a day trip).  We have several more lined up in the diary for this year which are taking us up and down the country and even across the water to Ireland, where we spent 48 hours in Dublin.  This post shares what we got up to during our time on the Emerald Isle.

48 Hours in Dublin

Trinity College in Dublin was our first university visit of 2024, back in early Spring.  It hadn’t really been on our radar as a possibility for Ella at all, but then, after doing some research into it and realising that the undergraduate degree she wants to study sounded really interesting, we explored the possibility further and it became a last minute addition to the list of potentials.

It turned out that we didn’t have long to plan everything as it’s one of the earliest open days of the year. In the end, the seduction of the Long Room Library (for Ella) and the prospect of seeing a dear friend of mine who lives just outside the city (for me) were the convincers we needed to spontaneously book our flights so we could spend 48 hours in Dublin…

Little Leprechaun bee – I’m always on the lookout for cool and cute street art whenever I visit a city

FRIDAY

We flew in late on Friday evening with Aer Lingus – they offered better flight times, had a better luggage allowance, gave better service and weren’t that much more in terms of cost than the budget airline alternative – and we stayed with my aforementioned friend.

He’s a fellow travel-and-photography-lover and we originally met in New Zealand twenty years ago.  He convinced me to go and do a bungy jump with him within minutes of us meeting each other (though he would say it was the other way around, and I talked him into it!), and we were soul-friends from that moment onwards.  He and his family live in a town just north of Dublin so it was the perfect place to base ourselves for the uni visit.

SATURDAY

We had a jam-packed itinerary, wanting to make the most of every single minute we had there, so Saturday was a loooooooong day.  I have been to Dublin before and loved it there, but it was two decades ago and I couldn’t wait to get back to rediscover it and show Ella around.  We were up and out of the apartment by 8am and we caught the DART train into the city, which couldn’t have been easier – the public transport is super easy to navigate.

The Book of Kells Experience

First up was The Book Of Kells Experience.  I’d booked tickets for this in advance, wanting to get the earliest session of the day to avoid crowds and because we had such a lot that we wanted to squeeze in.  It was definitely worth it to have fewer people there, especially as there were a few different stages to the experience.  The Book Of Kells itself is a 1,200 year old, uniquely illustrated manuscript that is incredibly intricately detailed.  Only a couple of pages of it are ever on display at one time, and it’s encased in a glass cabinet to protect it because it’s such an important piece of history.

The Old Library / Long Room was a highlight for both of us, even though the majority of the books have been removed as part of a redevelopment project.  It really is an impressive space, and with the addition of Gaia – a spectacularly illuminated globe seemingly suspended in mid-air – this was my favourite part.  There were also various immersive experiences in different rooms that were beautifully curated.

I’m really glad we did this – it was definitely an unexpectedly interesting and different way to start our 48 hours in Dublin…

Gaia and the Long Room Library

‘The Long Room Re-Imagined’ immersive experience

Trinity College Dublin

Next up was the Trinity College Dublin university open day, and the real reason for our trip.  We’d booked to attend various information talks from 11am right the way through to 3pm, the first one of which was all about applying to Trinity from outside of Ireland.  The room was packed, predominantly with students from the UK mainland plus a small collection of international students from Europe and beyond.

The lecturer went through the process involved in applying and what criteria would need to be met: qualifications in Maths and English obviously, and then she added, almost as an afterthought, that a second language was also a requirement.  There was a collective “huh?!” of confusion from almost everyone in the audience (including us).  Obviously for most international students this isn’t a problem, but for those who don’t have a native language other than English, or those who didn’t choose to study a language at GCSE or A Level, this meant that they wouldn’t be eligible to apply to study at Trinity at all.

Disappointment loomed, which further grew when we learned of the points system (which is different from the usual UCAS points system).  Even if she achieved three A*s at A Level Ella wouldn’t be able to get onto the degree course she wants to study as she wouldn’t have enough points.

It was such an unfortunate thing to find out – Ella thoroughly researches everything in depth, and nowhere on the Trinity website could she find where it said about a second language, otherwise we wouldn’t have gone to the expense of visiting in the first place.  We talked it through together once the seminar ended and decided that there was no point going to any of the other talks we’d booked onto, so we cancelled those and decided to make the most of our bonus time to see a bit more of the gorgeous campus and explore Dublin instead.

Trinity College is such a beautiful campus – the blossom trees were out in all their glory and even the sun came out to play!

Exploring Dublin

We had a few things on our list that we wanted to see during our 48 hours in Dublin.  We grabbed some lunch, then made our way to Iveagh Gardens – a gorgeous little green space in amongst the city buildings which also happens to be home to a small but unexpectedly quite spectacular waterfall.  We spent ages there admiring the water cascade prettily over the rocks, decompressing in nature after the busyness of the morning.

The waterfall in Iveagh Gardens

Managed to convince her to take a selfie with me 🙂

Next we headed for Temple Bar – it’s a must-see if you’re in the Irish capital, whether you’re there for less than a day, spending 48 hours in Dublin, or staying for much longer – it’s got to be done.  We didn’t stay for very long (just enough time to snap a couple of pictures to be honest) as it was absolutely heaving with people and tourists, and both of us felt a bit overwhelmed by it.  It was worth it though – look how cool it is!

Ella wanted to visit a few vintage shops that she’d scoped out ahead of our trip, so we made our way to each of those for a bit of a mooch and a wander as respite from the external crowds.  We also spontaneously and briefly popped into Urban Outfitters on a whim and found a photobooth!  I can never resist a photobooth so we squished in together and took some silly photos (which now have pride of place on our fridge at home) – they really do make the best memories and souvenirs of any trip.

Temple Bar

I can never resist a photobooth – they are are my favourite souvenir from any trip

From there we walked to Oscar Wilde’s statue, which was better to see in real life than I thought it would be.  ‘The Picture Of Dorian Gray’ is one of Ella’s favourite classics (I’m yet to read it, it’s on my list!) so she was keen to pay him a visit.  There were pillars with quotes from his various pieces of writing works there too, and it was set in some pretty gardens which we wandered through as well.

Oscar Wilde’s statue

Dublin in the springtime really is very pretty 🙂

Howth

We’d arranged to meet my friend and his family for a fish-and-chips dinner in Howth, a tiny harbour town perched on a peninsula north-east of Dublin.  Ella and I jumped on a train at Pearse Station (the train system really is incredibly smooth and easy to navigate) and, 25 minutes later disembarked into buffeting winds and the gloriously unmistakeable smell of salt water.

We walked out along the West Pier, past giant seagulls sporting their red-lipsticked beaks, right the way to the very end where we had a perfect view of Ireland’s Eye.  Ireland’s Eye is a small, uninhabited, rocky island in Howth Harbour that’s a site of historical and religious importance as well as being home to many varieties of seabirds (including, I’m told, puffins!).

As we walked back, we met my friend and they took us to the edge of the pier’s walkway, where a small crowd of people were gathered, gazing at the water.  Curious, we stood alongside them and peered down into the harbour… only to see two seals peering right back up at us!  This was honestly one of the highlights of the trip for me – I could have stayed there for hours watching them disappear under the water then pop up somewhere completely unexpected.

Howth Harbour

One of our little friends! Ella named this one Martin.

After delighting in watching the seals, we went to get food.  We headed straight to Leo Burdock’s and it was delicious – 10/10 recommend.  It’s a tiny little place, but it offered big portions, excellent chips and fun & quirky decor.

Once we’d eaten we headed over towards the East Pier.  We’d timed everything so we could watch the sunset and we were lucky enough to be gifted a spectacular one.  The fact that we could barely stand up due to the strength of the wind, or feel our extremities because it was so cold, was by-the-by… nothing was going to stop us from making it all the way to the lighthouse.  It was 100% worth it, as I think you can see from the photos below.

Sunset at Howth Harbour

Howth Lighthouse at sunset

Candlelit Concert

That wasn’t the end of our adventures for the day though!  Whilst my friend and his partner headed home to put their son to bed, Ella and I caught the train back into the city for one last bit of excitement.  I’d booked us tickets for a candlelit concert and both of us had been looking forward to it for weeks.  I’ve been to a couple of these kinds of concerts before – always piano, always Ludovico Einaudi’s music (he’s my favourite composer) – but it was brand new to Ella.

This concert was a string quartet playing a selection of Taylor Swift songs (she’s one of Ella’s favourite artists and I have to admit to being a bit of a not-so-secret Swiftie myself), and the event took place in an old church so it was atmospheric and made it all the more theatrical for Ella to enjoy.  Watching her experience it for the first time was magic – I think I watched her expressions more than I watched the performers.  We both thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Taylor Swift candlelit classical concert – it was wonderful!

SUNDAY

There are very few people in the world who would be willing to go along with my crazy plans to get up ridiculously early on a Sunday morning to go and watch the sunrise at the beach.  Luckily, my friend (who we were staying with) is one of those rare and precious people, and he said yes immediately when I suggested it.

Sunrise at Portmarnock Beach

We each got up quietly – him leaving his partner and son in their room, and me leaving Ella in the bed we were sharing during our stay, all still peacefully and soundly asleep.  We met in the hallway of the apartment, exchanging hushed “good morning” whispers and rubbing sleep from our eyes as we rushed to pull on shoes and hoodies and grab our cameras, before bundling ourselves into the car and racing urgently to the beach, our breath fogging in the chilly pre-dawn air as the glow of first light began to appear above the horizon.

It was freezing – cold enough to take my breath away and instantly numb my fingers.  I could barely manipulate the settings on my camera.  And it was 100% worth it.  We walked and talked and stopped to shoot, then walked and talked and captured some more, on repeat.  The colours in the sky shifted from subtle pink to striking gold within minutes.

It’s hard to put into words just how sunrise makes me feel.  The gentle reverence of a brand new day; the colours softly bleeding across the sky like ink in water, fading and intensifying and becoming something else entirely.  It happens whether there is someone there to watch it or not, like a private ritual that I’ve just happened to have the privilege of accidentally stumbling across.  It feels almost spiritual in a way, a symbol of all the opportunities and possibilities and parallel universes and promises and moments to come.  It’s my most favourite time of day and this one was a pretty special one that will stay with me forever.

If you ever get the chance to watch a Dublin sunrise, do it.

Sunrise at Portmarnock Beach

Taken just minutes after the photo above – the colours change so quickly! That’s ‘Ireland’s Eye’ on the right hand side of the image

Us in shadow selfie form at Portmarnock Beach

Once the sun was well and truly up, we headed back to the apartment to warm up and get breakfast & hot chocolate and to greet our sleepy family members as they gradually emerged from their bedrooms.

We’d planned to do the coastal walk from Portmarnock to Malahide today and fortunately the weather was on our side.  It took about an hour and a half in total as there was a fair bit of stopping to take photos, figure out what seabirds we could see, admire the view etc…  It’s a really gorgeous stretch of coastline.

Once we reached Malahide we stopped for cake and a cuppa before wandering around the marina and through the town itself.  We didn’t have time to visit Malahide Castle or it’s walled gardens, which I’d have liked to have done – we’ll have to save that for a return trip.  It’s very pretty little town, quite bustling with energy (even on a Sunday), and I’d say it’s well worth paying a visit if you’re in Dublin – it’s only a short train ride away.

A little corner of Malahide Marina – I loved the reflections of the sky in the water

After all that walking and sea air, we had a much needed chilled-out afternoon at the apartment as we had an early evening flight back home.  I was sad to leave – our trip felt like it was over far too quickly.  We packed a lot into our 48 hours in Dublin and it seemed like we barely touched the surface.  There was so much more we wanted to see and do in and around the city – we definitely need to go back for another visit.

An easy-peasy airport experience

Here’s a little vlog of our 48 hours in Dublin:

What would you add to a ‘must-do in Dublin’ list?  Feel free to leave your suggestions and recommendations in the comments!