Dublinia — Attraction in Dublin

As a resident of Dublin growing up I can remember the excitement about the impressive Viking discoveries in Wood Key. The Dubvlinia experience borne from it was the talk of the town and really Ireland first interactive/live museum offering. The experience started by entering a lift and instead of the screen showing floors it showed years travelling back in time as you descended into the museum. This was a simple incredibly effective entrance which has stayed with me to this day. When the lift doors peeled back you were first hit by the smells, smoky and somewhat unpleasant as you now entered a real functioning viking village. With actors playing the parts of locals. The expressed curiosity at our strange clothes and technologies (digital watches). Through the actors we learned about Viking life and it was a wonderous experience for a child.

Sadly this experience no longer exists. Although the museum split over several floors has an immense amount of information and displays there is simply to much text. I realise now it charts Dublin's history both before and long after the Vikings, it has in my opinion lost the magic of its earlier offerings. I felt overwhelmed my the amount of material on offer which one could argue would warrant many visits. The best of the experience were a video depicting the life of a man through the middle ages in Dublin and interactive displays overlaying old and present maps of Dublin. Most interesting is that many of Dublins road still have the very same names as those in the distant past.

I feel the museum has lost its charm for younger people. This is a large museum and will take at a normal pace about two hours to navigate. However I would certainly bring back the Viking village and similar offerings for later periods. A room or two of actors from that time would bring the whole experience to life. And that is main point of contention. The museum is too passive and too heavily based on reading many displays. When you think what could be achieved. Not to say it is not worth a visit and you will certainly get a wonderful impression of Dublins past and I know an immense amount of work goes into creating all this material but I have never forgotten my first experience of Dubvlinia but I'm afraid my latest visit will not...

Visiting Dublinia is definitely an engaging and interesting activity. I spent roughly three hours there (taking time to read all the information provided) and you can tell that they spent a lot of thought and energy in making the museum as informative as possible. Audio commentary, visual aids, some interactive parts with museum workers, mannequins portraying scenes and some rooms that look like entire streets or houses. Some mannequins were so realistic, I sat next to two of them without immediately noticing their inanimateness. Incredibly well done and definitely not a single boring part. I think this would be great to bring children to as well (though some of the informations boards might be a bit too long to hold their attention) what with areas where they can play medieval games, write their names in runes,… etc. That all being said though, the museum is a bit of a sensory nightmare - especially when it comes to the audio. Oftentimes different audiobits would overlap and you’d hear dialogues and sounds from the other room. I did have quite a bit of difficulty processing all the information provided due to the sounds mixing - and as someone on the spectrum I’m not sure I would recommend this to others on the spectrum, as fun as the museum is. Some additional spaces to sit would also be nice and since many of the rooms have areas where things are being touched by multiple people (fabrics, lids, balls,…) I would prefer there to be some hand sanitizer available after each of these areas (I could only find one available in the gift shop afterwards). Going up the tower to the view was also nice, not a terrible place to be for a person scared of heights as the barriers between you and the edge of the windows...

One of the best museums I've ever visited and a very great addition to going to the national museum. You will see detailed maps, animations, movies, and dioramas of medieval Dublin and how the town formed. Personal narratives and a timeline of its history.

Lots of stuff here, any short video on YouTube you might have watched about this place does not adequately cover all there is here, so not a place you want to come if you're looking for a quick in and out in my opinion.

You can easily spend several hours here if you're actually trying to learn and read all the info, so FYI. You can probably casually walk through in about an hour skipping a lot of the reading, and maybe sticking to visual media, but the reading is where all the details are.

If you want the full experience I would block out two to three hours of your day, and take your time. 2 hours some reading and skipping other parts, maybe up to 3 hours if you read and watch everything.... including short videos and movies. There's a lot of stuff presented to you and it's done extraordinarily well, it's very well put together and in a very modern way.

There's also a nice stair climb to the top of the church tower for a nice view. Don't be afraid it only takes a couple minutes to get up there, take your time if you're slow on stairs... it's very short and a nice view from a top Christ Church cathedral which this museum is a part of.

Has nice clean restrooms and a nice gift shop as well. Hope that is helpful, definitely go here and definitely...