Trinity College

Lonely Planet review

Don your gown and dust off that tome on elocution, for this calm and cordial retreat from the bustle of contemporary Dublin is not just Ireland's most prestigious university (and the home of the blockbuster hit that is the Book of Kells ) but a throwback to those far-off days when a university education was the preserve of a very small elite who spoke passionately of the importance of philosophy and the need for empire.

Today's alumni are an altogether different bunch, but Trinity still looks the part, and on a summer's evening, when the crowds thin and the chatter subsides, there are few more delightful places in the world to be.

A great way to see Trinity's grounds is on a walking tour (896 1827; admission incl Book of Kells around €10 ; ;tours every 40min 10:15 - 15:40 Mon-Sat, 10:15 - 15:00 Sun mid-May-Sep), which depart from the College Green entrance.

The college was established by Elizabeth I in 1592 on land confiscated from an Augustinian priory in an effort to stop the brain drain of young Protestant Dubliners, who were skipping across to continental Europe for an education and were becoming 'infected with popery'. With bigotry as a base, Trinity went on to become one of Europe's outstanding universities, producing a host of notable graduates - how about Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett at the same alumni dinner?

It remained completely Protestant until 1793, but even when the university relented and began to admit Catholics, the Church forbade it; until 1970, any Catholic who enrolled here could consider themselves excommunicated. Although hardly the bastion of British Protestantism that it once was - most of its 15,000 students are Catholic - it is still a popular choice for British students. Women were first admitted to the college in 1903, earlier than at most British universities.

The 16-hectare site is now in the centre of the city, but when founded, it was described as being 'near Dublin' and was bordered on two sides by the estuary of the Liffey. Nothing now remains of the original Elizabethan college, which was replaced in the Georgian building frenzy of the 18th century. The elegant Regent House entrance on College Green was built between 1752 and 1759, and is guarded by statues of the writer Oliver Goldsmith (1730-74) and the orator Edmund Burke (1729-97). The railings outside the entrance are a popular meeting spot.

Through the entrance, past the Students Union, are Front Sq and Parliament Sq, the latter dominated by the 30m-high Campanile, designed by Edward Lanyon and erected from 1852 to 1853 on what was believed to be the centre of the monastery that preceded the college. Students who pass beneath it when the bells toll will fail their exams, according to superstition. To the north of the Campanile is a statue of George Salmon, the college provost from 1886 to 1904, who fought bitterly to keep women out of the college. He carried out his threat to permit them in 'over his dead body' by dropping dead when the worst happened. To the south of the Campanile is a statue of historian WEH Lecky (1838-1903).

North of Parliament Sq is the Chapel, designed by William Chambers and completed in 1799. It has some fine plasterwork by Michael Stapleton, Ionic columns and painted glass windows, and has been open to all denominations since 1972. It's only accessible by organised tour. Next is the Dining Hall, originally built by Richard Cassels in the mid-18th century. The great architect must have had an off-day because the vault collapsed twice and the entire structure was dismantled 15 years later. The replacement was completed in 1761, but extensively restored after a fire in 1984.

On the grassy expanse of Library Sq is a 1969 sculpture by British sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986), and two large Oregon maples. On the north side is the 1892 Graduates' Memorial Building, and an area known as Botany Bay.

On the far east of the square, the red-brick Rubrics Building dates from around 1690, making it the oldest building in the college. It was extensively altered in an 1894 restoration, and then underwent serious structural modification in the 1970s. Behind the Rubrics Building is New Sq, featuring the highly ornate Victorian Museum Building which houses a Geological Museum. It's open by prior arrangement only. The Doric-fronted Printing House, on the other side of New square, was also designed by Richard Cassels.

If you are following the less studious-looking throng, however, you'll find yourself magnetically drawn south of Library Sq to the Old Library home to Trinity's prize possession and biggest crowd-puller, the astonishingly beautiful Book of Kells.

Upstairs from the star attraction is the highlight of Thomas Burgh's building, the magnificent 65m Long Room with its barrel-vaulted ceiling. It's lined with shelves containing 200,000 of the library's oldest books and manuscripts, along with busts of eminent scholars, a 14th-century harp and an original copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic , read out by Pádraig Pearse at the beginning of the 1916 Easter Rising. Despite Ireland's independence, the 1801 Library Act entitles Trinity College Library to a free copy of every book published in Britain. Housing this bounty requires nearly 1km of extra shelving every year and the collection amounts to about five million titles, which are stored at various facilities around town.