http://yourirelandhotels.com Check out our guide to THe Guinness Storehouse, Chester Beatty Library, Jameson Distillery, St Michams Church, Dublin Castle and more Abraham (Bram) Stoker was born in the mid-1800′s. He's best known for writing Dracula which was one of the most famous Gothic novels ever written. He was born right here in this house in Clontarf and then he went to study in Trinity College. He excelled in athletics. But he was also interested in theatre, science, medicine and the occult. Michans Church was founded in the eleventh century and rebuilt in the seventeenth century. Its here in the parish of Christchurch and it was originally built on the site of a Danish chapel. Its vault is quite interesting. It contains some Mummies and they were really well preserved because of the dry limestone walls. The remains in there include a six and a half foot crusader with his feet and his right hand severed off. So we're in here with Wolfe Tone's death mask. John Jameson, who by the way shares his initials by the way with James Joyce, something James Joyce was very happy about because this was his favourite whiskey and he mentioned it a few times in Ulysees. Well he founded this distillery, that's Jameson not Joyce, two hundred years ago in 1780 in this very site here in Dublin. And they would have used these massive oak casts to mature the whiskey. You had to be very skilled to make one. It took seven years to do the apprenticeship to masks the casks here behind me. And this was the first place where the whiskey was distilled for this place here. And they've been making fantastic whiskey ever since. So Mr Jameson would have had to buy his barley in September. He would have had to make sure he had enough to do the whole year because he only bought it at harvest time. He bought the best of all the products he used to make the ingredients for the whiskey. And in here is one of the places that they would have used to transport the grain. There's even a little reproduction of the two cats that used to protect the place from mice. Apparently they made 724 killings so they were very well loved cats. Their names were Megan and Lloyd. So they were just two of the characters that were involved in the whole process in the Jameson distillery. Whiskey in Irish is uisce beatha, which means the water of life and that reflects the ingredients as well because all it is pure Irish water, malted and unmalted barley. We've got an example here of it. So we're in the distillery room here and they say that one of the secrets of Jameson is that it's distilled not once like American bourbon or twice like Scotch whisky but three times which gives it a kind of smoother taste. And they have to be careful that they add water at various times because otherwise, it could reach a volume, an alcohol content of 84% because they bring that back down to around 40% which is the finished product. They say a glass of Jameson is consumed in Dublin every second. Cheers to that. The Chester Beatty library is the only museum in Ireland to be voted the European museum of year and its for good reason too. Its got fantastic collections of art dating back from 2700bc to today. Its got everything from decorative arts, manuscripts, rare books and it even has religious pieces too, of the koran and the bible. So you've got a little piece of everything here. It's a fantastic place to visit. So here's the man himself. Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. The Guinness Storehouse is one of Dublin's most famous attractions. And inside they show how the black stuff is made. With water, barley, yeast and hops. And we're just around the corner from St James's Gate where the black stuff has been brewed for over two hundred and fifty years. So its really interesting to find out about the history and the process of making Guinness but one of the nicest parts of the Storehouse is coming right up to the very top,looking at this beautiful view of Dublin and trying some of the black stuff. So cheers to that. Slainte.

• published: 08 Jan 2014
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