Museums in Dublin

Dublin is a city filled with history – one with a rich and vibrant cultural legacy that stretches back in to the mists of time It’s no wonder, then, that this place is filled with a host of museums to explore and get your historical kicks.

Start out at the National Museum of Ireland, a network of museums each specialising in a different historical aspect – it features pre-Christian and early Christian artefacts, like the Broighter collar, the Ardagh chalice and the elaborately detailed Tara brooch.

Not far away on Merrion Street, the Natural History Museum showcases a seemingly endless collection of zoological specimens, including a special exhibit on fauna native to Ireland.



For art lovers, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) features exhibitions from international and homegrown contemporary artists, while the National Gallery of Ireland features art from antiquity and modern times alike.

For a truly special experience, check out the Chester Beatty Library, pipped by Lonely Planet as one of the best museums in Europe. This light and airy space features a wide variety of publications, manuscripts and books from around the world, including the Biblical Papyri: a collection of scriptural writings from the second to fourth centuries. And from the earliest ages up to the modern day, the Little Museum of Dublin tells the story of the city from its humble origins to contemporary tales, in a cute and quirky setting.

No matter which chapter of Ireland’s history you're interested in, there's a museum in Dublin to tell the story.