Dublin's 1700s Coffee Houses Tour

The lively “penny universities” where news, ideas, and commerce thrived in the 1600s and 1700s. Strolling hidden lanes and historic sites, visitors meet larger-than-life figures like Jonathan Swift and discover how Dublin’s new rich shaped art, trade, and public thought.

The tour begins at City Hall, once a bustling coffee house, before moving to Dublin Castle — the very heart of power and intrigue. From there,you'll wind through the gated Hoey Lane to the site of the old Tholsel, the city’s toll booth, and on to High Street and Cook Street, home to Dublin’s very first coffeehouse in the 1670s. Along the way, you uncover the contrasting worlds of the Four Courts Marshalsea — a place of misery for some and unexpected refuge for others.

Through vivid tales and colourful characters, visitors meet the likes of Jonathan Swift, who turned his wit against the city’s drapers, and the ambitious “new rich” of 18th-century Dublin who shaped art, commerce, and public thought. With dramatic quotes, hidden histories, and a light-hearted tone, the journey ends with a coffee tasting at Dublin’s oldest shop, where guests can experience the flavour of 1700s Dublin for themselves.