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At the eastern end of the college grounds are the rugby ground and College Park, where cricket is played. There are a number of science buildings here also. The Lincoln Place Gate at this end is usually open and makes a good entrance or exit from the college, especially if you’re on a bicycle.

BANK OF IRELAND

The imposing Bank of Ireland (Map; 671 1488; College Green; admission free; 10am-4pm Mon-Wed & Fri, 10am-5pm Thu), directly opposite Trinity College, was originally built in 1729 to house the Irish Parliament. When the Parliament voted itself out of existence by the Act of Union in 1801, it became a building without a role. It was sold in 1803 with instructions that the interior be altered to prevent its being used as a debating chamber in the future; consequently, the large central House of Commons was remodelled, but the smaller chamber of the House of Lords survived. After independence the Irish government chose to make Leinster House the new parliamentary building and ignored the possibility of restoring this fine building to its original use.

Inside, the banking mall occupies what was once the House of Commons, but it offers little indication of its former role. The Irish House of Lords is a much more interesting place, with Irish-oak woodwork, a late-18th-century chandelier of Dublin crystal, tapestries and a 10kg silver-gilt mace.

Éamon MacThomás, a Dublin historian and author, runs tours (admission free; 10.30am, 11.30am & 1.45pm Tue) of the House of Lords, which also include an informal talk as much about Ireland, and life in general, as the building itself.

TEMPLE BAR

There’s been many a wild night had within the cobbled precincts of Temple Bar (Map), Dublin’s most visited neighbourhood, a maze of streets and alleys sandwiched between Dame St and the Liffey, running from Trinity College to Christ Church Cathedral. But it’s not all booze and infamy: you can browse for vintage clothes, check out the latest art installations, get your nipples pierced and nibble on Mongolian barbecue. In good weather you can watch outdoor movies in one square or join in a pulsating drum circle in another – just a few slices of life in Dublin’s Cultural Quarter.

There is plenty of culture in Temple Bar, but the title is hardly deserved and worn with ill-concealed discomfort. It’s the inevitable consequence of an overbearing effort to sell at all costs that unquantifiable thing that is the ‘Dublin Experience’, as if the combination of African head masks made in China and jaded traditional music is the embodiment of Dublin’s multicultural and global identity.

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THE PAGE OF KELLS

More than half a million visitors stop in each year to see Trinity’s top show-stopper, the world-famous Book of Kells. This illuminated manuscript, dating from around AD 800 and therefore one of the oldest books in the world, was probably produced by monks at St Colmcille’s Monastery on the remote island of Iona, off the western coast of Scotland. Repeated looting by marauding Vikings forced the monks to flee to the temporary safety of Kells, County Meath, in AD 806, along with their masterpiece. Around 850 years later, the book was brought to the college for safekeeping and has remained here since.

The Book of Kells contains the four Gospels of the New Testament, written in Latin, as well as prefaces, summaries and other text. If it were merely words, the Book of Kells would simply be a very old book – it’s the extensive and amazingly complex illustrations that make it so wonderful. The superbly decorated opening initials are only part of the story, for the book has smaller illustrations between the lines.

And here the problems begin. Of the 680 pages, only two are on display – one showing an illumination, the other showing text – which has led to it being dubbed the page of Kells. No getting around that one, though: you can hardly expect the right to thumb through a priceless treasure at random. No, the real problem is its immense popularity, which makes