Traditionally there has not been a lot of choice when it comes to the evening tours Dublin has to offer. It was always a real shame as often people get back from their various day tours, they might have spent the morning in Wicklow or up at Newgrange, get back to the city and once they've filled their bellies with some of the delicious food on offer in Dublin's restaurants they would want to get out and keep exploring. I know that I am one of these people, if I am going to come halfway across the world to visit a country (or even just a couple of hours in a plane) I want to see and do as much as I possibly can in every city. For me this generally means early starts and late evenings, with a lot of satisfaction in between.
Luckily Dublin has really pulled itself together when it comes to things to do in the evening and at night time. Previously all the evening tours Dublin had for the visitor had been all about alcohol and drinking. There were musical and literary pub crawls on offer, pub crawls which offered very cheap drinks (for the younger backpacker crowd), there was also traditional Irish music and dance in pubs, but for someone like me who doesn't like to drink much alcohol (in fact, I've never liked the taste of alcohol, but I've been totally dry for more than a year now and I do not miss alcohol even one little bit). The landscape had been fairly empty.
Nowadays there are quite a few options to fill your evening with. These days along with all the alcohol related fun there are several fantastic ghost tour options. The Haunted History Tour and the Northside Ghost Walk trailblazed through the evening tours segment of the market. The Haunted History Tour is a fantastic walking tour on the South side of the river. You learn a lot of fascinating history and then for the last half of the tour you will be locked in to the most haunted place in Dublin, and I can tell you from personal experience that it is a very thrilling 45 minutes in there.
The Northside Ghost Walk is a night time walk along the Northern foreshore of the River Liffey. It is a more sober tour, the history is much heavier and sadder on the Northside. The Northside of the river has always traditionally been considered the poorer side of the river. All the wealthy Dubliners, often originally from England, lived on the South Side, which meant they carried out all their dirty work on the North Side of the river. This means that the Northside has a lot of horrible history and of course more than its fair share of ghosts. The Northside is a place that the vast majority of tourists will not visit unless they take a tour and they would really be missing out on some of Dublin's hidden gems if they don't visit so I really highly recommend this tour!
More recently the Gravedigger Ghost Bus has come onto the scene. This is Dublin's premier and most popular ghost tour. Full of bawdy humour, terrifying tales and a stop at the cutest, most traditional pub you will have ever seen right next to the famous Glasnevin Cemetery, I imagine this tour will be going strong for years to come.
More evening tours Dublin has to offer include: fairy and folklore storytelling sessions. These often take place in pubs and restaurants but a new exciting development which is coming to us in 2013 includes an evening bus tour which will focus on Celtic Myths and Legends, Faeries and Folklore
and will take visitors to this city to Dublin's beautiful sea coast to see where these great legends are said to have taken place. I am looking forward to trying that one for sure!
Last, but certainly not least, is the Dublin Hellfire Club. This is an evening tour which starts at 7PM and gets back at 10. It picks up and drops off at the Brazen Head Pub which is Ireland's oldest pub, founded in 1198 and a tourist attraction in its own right. This one is not for the faint hearted, it involves a long walk through dark, creepy forest to get to the isolated, deserted Hellfire Club which was used back in the 1700s for Satanic rituals and other nasty nasty things.
All in all, the evening tours Dublin now offers up to her tourists are vast in their array. The quality of tour in this city is exceptionally high. It is not possible for tourists to come here and be disappointed by what is on offer!
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