Trinity College Dublin
| County: | Dublin |
| Tel: | 01-896 2320 |
| Fax: | 01-896 2690 |
| Email: | bookofkells@tcd.ie |
Trinity College Dublin is the oldest university in Ireland, founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I and is famous for its graduates such as Swift, Goldsmith, Wilde and Beckett. Visitor facilities include the Treasury, which houses the Book of Kells, an exhibition, “The Book of Kells: Turning Darkness into Light,” and the Long Room, the largest single-chamber library in the world containing 200,000 of the library’s oldest books. Temporary exhibitions are on view in the Long Room to display the rich holdings of the library and to encourage further research. Temporary exhibitions in the Long Room for 2011 include; 'Ireland in Turmoil: the 1641 Depositions' and '300 Years of Medicine in Trinity College'. Tours of the campus are available from May to September daily and at weekends outside of this period. For information on tours and exhibitions please check our new website at www.bookofkells.ie
General Information
| Address: | College Street Dublin 2 |
|---|---|
| Telephone; | 01-896 2320 |
| Fax: | 01-896 2690 |
| Email: | bookofkells@tcd.ie |
| Website: | http://www.bookofkells.ie |
| Location: | Dublin City Centre |
| Season: | All Year (Will close for Xmas from Thurs 22nd Dec 2011 at 5pm - Tues 3rd Jan 2012 at 9.30am) |
| Open Times: | May-Sept: Mon-Sat: 09.30-17.00 Sun: 09.30-16.30 Oct-April: Mon-Sat: 09.30-17.00 Sun: 12.00-16.30 |
| Tours: | Self-guiding centre - tours by arrangement only |
| Booking Contact: | adiffley@tcd.ie |
| Manager: | Anne-Marie Diffley |
| Average Visit Length: | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| Entrance Fees: |
Adult: €9 Child (U12): Free Student/OAP: €8 Family (2A+4C): €18 Groups: €6.50 |
| Audio Visual: | No |
| Restaurant: | Snack Bars/Restaurant open from May to September |
| Picnic Area: | No |
| Shop: | Bookshop stocking postcards, jewellery & souvenirs |
| Information Guide: | English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese & Russian |
| Coach Parking: | Yes |
| Group Booking Necessary: | No |
| Car Parking: | Yes |
| Disabled Access/Parking: | Yes |
Schools
We welcome supervised school visits, accompanied by teachers.
Please note tours are self guided and information packs are available on line. At peak times there can be lengthy queues for admission. It would help if you can advise us of numbers, date and approximate time in advance of your visit by e-mail to adiffley(at)tcd.ie.
School groups have free admission from 1st October to 1st April only. We have sets of worksheets which can be used during and after a tour by students. These give some background text to the exhibition and pose related questions. Similarly, teachers' guides provides some ideas for preparation prior to a class visit and some further resources. The Book of Kells 'Turning Darkness into Light' schools information pack available on www.tcd.ie/library and are designed for group use
The Old Library Audio Guide
For the past year an entertaining and informative audio guide to the Book of Kells Exhibition and the Long Room in the Old Library of Trinity College Dublin has been available in the English language. It was designed with the general public in mind and developed and voiced in Ireland.
This year we are pleased to announce that the guide is now also available in German and French. Highlights of the guide include details of the precursors to the Book of Kells, information on its production and material on the detailed pages.
Information on the treasures housed in the Long Room follow and the last stop on the tour includes a recording of the last time the Brian Boru was played, in 1961.
The unit itself is a conveniently sized MP3 player measuring 8 x 4 cm and is just 6mm thick. This makes it light enough to hang from the supplied earphones. The cost of the audio guide is €5 and the unique feature of the unit is that it can be retained by the visitor for future use or kept as a memento.
New Exhibition at The Old Library
12 October 2011 to 1 April 2012
Long Room, Trinity College Library
Under Louis XIV France became the most powerful land power in Western Europe. Considerable territorial expansion was achieved through a series of wars which were hugely expensive in lives and money. By the end of the reign in 1715 the state was almost bankrupt.
Despite the warfare, there were immense cultural achievements: in drama the works of Corneille, Molière and Racine; in architecture the building of the palace of Versailles; in music, the operas of Lully. In common with many other countries, there was repressive legislation against religious non-conformists who in France were the Huguenots. This culminated in 1685 in the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes of 1598 which had granted limited toleration.
This exhibition looks at various aspects of French life in the seventeenth century including taxation, warfare, trade and religion. The exhibition is entirely drawn from the very rich visual and textual resources of Trinity College Library which has the finest collection of seventeenth-century French books in Ireland.
Groups and Events
Soak up the ambience of Trinity College. Banquets, receptions and theme parties can be organised in the majestic surroundings of the oldest university in Ireland
Booking Contact: adiffley(at)tcd.ie
