National Museum - Archaeology & History

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  • Address
    Kildare St, Southside
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  • Phone
    677 7444
  • Website
  • Transport
    bus: 7, 7a, 10, 25X, 39X, 51D, 51X
train: Pearse

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Lonely Planet review

The National Museum is home to a fabulous bounty of Bronze Age gold, Iron Age Celtic metalwork, Viking artefacts and impressive ancient Egyptian relics. The Palladian-style Victorian building is a fine setting for the collection, with its 18m (62ft) domed rotunda, marble columns and mosaic floors.

Visitors can pass through the ages chronologically, from the Stone Age burial mounds of prehistoric Ireland to an exceptional amount of gold from the Bronze Age, through to a gruesomely preserved Iron Age bog body.

Two of the museum's best pieces are found in the Treasury. The Ardagh Chalice, found by a farmer in 1868, has 354 pieces of gold, silver, bronze, brass copper and lead; it's engraved with the name of the 12 Apostles and is considered the best example of Celtic art ever found.

The Tara brooch, believed to be made for a leading Celt at the court of the Irish kings at Tara, is intricately decorated with filigree gold wire, enamelled studs, amber bands and amethysts.