Guesthouses in Dublin City Centre
Many tourists like to stay at guesthouses in Dublin city Centre when they travel to the fine city of Dublin. Some may want to see the culture, the history, the sports, the entertainment and architecture of the city. Some may want to see the famous tourist attractions of the city.
Dublin is both the largest city and capital of the Republic Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region. Founded as a Viking settlement, the city has been Ireland's primary city for most of the island's history since medieval times.
The name Dublin is a Hiberno-English derivative of 'Dubh Linn' (Irish, dubh -> black, and linn -> pool). Historically, in the traditional Gaelic script used for the Irish language, 'bh' was written with a dot over the 'b', viz 'Dub. Linn' or 'Dub.linn'. Those without a knowledge of Irish omitted the dot and spelled the name variously as 'Develyn' or 'Dublin'.
A guest house is a kind of lodging. In some parts of the world a guest house is similar to a hostel or bed and breakfast. In other parts of the world guest houses are the only kind of accommodation available for visitors with no local relatives.
Among the distinguishing features that distinguish a guest house from a hotel or bed and breakfast is the lack of full time staff. Bed and breakfasts are usually family owned, with the family living on the premises. Hotels maintain a staff presence 24x7. A guest house on the other hand will have limited staff presence. Because of the limited staff presence checkin is often by appointment. Specialized courses in how to run guest houses are available.
The common name for the city in Modern Irish is 'Baile Átha Cliath' ('The Settlement of the Ford of the Reed Hurdles'). It was first written as such in 1368 in the Annals of Ulster. 'Áth Cliath' is a place-name referring to a fording point of the Liffey in the vicinity of Heuston Station. 'Baile Átha Cliath' was later applied to an early Christian monastery which is believed to have been situated in the area of Aungier Street currently occupied by Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church. Due to its length, the Irish name is sometimes abbreviated as BÁC.
The subsequent Viking settlement was on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey, to the East of Christchurch, in the area known as Wood Quay. The Dubh Linn was a lake used by the Vikings to moor their ships and was connected to the Liffey by the Poddle. The Dubh Linn and Poddle were covered during the early 1700s, and as the city expanded they were largely forgotten about. The Dubh Linn was situated where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle.
The earliest reference to Dublin is sometimes said to appear in the writings of Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy), the Egyptian-Greek astronomer and cartographer, around the year A.D. 140, who refers to a settlement called 'Eblana'. This would seem to give Dublin a just claim to nearly two thousand years of antiquity, as the settlement must have existed a considerable time before Ptolemy became aware of it. Recently, however, doubt has been cast on the identification of Eblana with Dublin, and the similarity of the two names is now thought to be coincidental.
It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duiblinn, from which Dyflin took its name. Beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The Viking settlement of about 841 was known as Dyflin, from the Irish Duiblinn (or "Black Pool", referring to a dark tidal pool where the River Poddle entered the Liffey on the site of the Castle Gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle), and a Gaelic settlement, Áth Cliath ("ford of hurdles") was further up river. The Celtic settlement's name is still used as the Irish name of the modern city, though the first written evidence of it is found in the Annals of Ulster of 1368. The modern English name came from the Viking settlement of Dyflin, which derived its name from the Irish Duiblinn. The Vikings, or Ostmen as they called themselves, ruled Dublin for almost three centuries, though they were expelled in 902 only to return in 917 and notwithstanding their defeat by the Irish High King Brian Boru at the battle of Clontarf in 1014. From that date, the Danes were a minor political force in Ireland, firmly opting for a commercial life.
The Thingmote was a raised mound, 40-foot high and 240-foot in circumference, where the Norsemen assembled and made their laws. It stood on the south of the river, adjacent to Dublin Castle, until 1685. Viking Dublin had a large slave market. Thralls were captured and sold, not only by the Norse but also by warring Irish chiefs.
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