As regular readers know, we are always on the lookout for a pub with a good ghost story, whether it’s October or, really, any time. The pub in question we’re visiting this week doesn’t feel particularly spooky, but it does have an interesting history to go along with the ghost story, even if they aren’t perfectly well-connected. Without further ado, we make our way to The Portobello Bar.
While the ‘since 1793’ date is a little shaky, given the current building’s construction in the 1870s, it seems entirely plausible that there was, indeed, an inn or pub around here earlier. The Grand Canal’s proximity – just across a heavily-used road – supports the possibility of an earlier date, and it’s also what supplies our ghost story. Construction began on the Grand Canal in the late 18th century, and it was a key piece of infrastructure in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Our ghost – a ‘vengeful’ or ‘drunken’ lock-keeper (take your pick/why not both?) – is alleged to originate in the middle of the 19th century, forever haunting the lock just outside the pub. He’s even meant to be responsible for multiple deaths, appearing as a shapeshifting light-into-human-figure. As an aside, we don’t get enough shapeshifting ghostlore any more – there used to be a proud tradition of spooks turning into hay bales or cows and horses, and that seems to have vanished in modern ‘it happened to me stories’ – someone should get on that. But we digress…
But there was a very real tragedy just opposite the pub’s location in 1861, when a horse-drawn omnibus went off the nearby bridge into the canal, killing all the passengers as well as both horses. While ‘some’ attributed the accident to the spectral lock-keeper, it would be an interesting exercise to trace back the origin of that part of the story, especially since the current pub (or, at least, most of it) would have been built or re-built at least a good few years after the accident.
So, ghosts aside, what is the pub like? Well…most definitely not creepy. If anything, it’s a bit too polished to feel at all like a liminal space. There are several very different sections of the pub with their own character, but none are especially dark or gloomy. The front is much more ‘pubby’ and the rear more of a restaurant or hotel bar vibe (the many large TV screens are part of what gives that impression), though it’s worth knowing that the back bar is where the sole local-craft-beer representative is; there’s a Rye River tap if you know where to look. Indeed, the food was very good – a step up from a lot of pub food, though the enormous portions are perhaps created more for tourists than locals. There’s also the usual Guinness – and Murphy’s – plus some Warsteiner.
There’s a covered outdoor space too, more Pavement Pints than beer garden, given the amount of traffic nearby, but you do get a view of the canal lock and the (haunted?) bridge. And even if you’re not into the ghostly folklore, The Portobello Bar does have other legitimate historical claims: back when it was called Davy’s, it was an important site during the Easter Rising in 1916, and that history is very much remembered in this pub.
We may not have seen the vengeful lock-keeper at The Portobello Bar, but we did have a good burger and pint. We’ll keep trying to find some good haunted Dublin pub stories…
Where: 33 South Richmond St, Dublin, IE D02 CF40
Access from the city centre: Buses 9, 15, 15A, 15B, 16, 83, 83A, 140; 25-ish minute walk
Food: Elevated pub grub, carvery, weekend brunch
Sport: All the sport, football especially
TVs: So many large screens in the back that it can feel a bit sports-bar-y
Music: DJs and live music at weekends
Family-friendliness: At the usual times
Pub-crawl-ability: High – Camden street is full of pubs and bars like The Bleeding Horse, Devitt’s, Teach Tábhairne Ag Teach, The Camden, Whelan’s, Anseo, Ryan’s of Camden Street…and the local ‘Spoon’s, Keavan’s Port
Local sites of note: Iveagh Gardens, St Stephen’s Green, National Concert Hall, St Kevin’s Park, Grand Canal
Haunted: Is it the lock-keeper? The tram passengers? The horses? Everything to play for here
Other notes: Main-floor toilets, though no specific disabled toilet
Socials: Facebook, Instagram
Perhaps surprisingly to some (certainly, to us), Dublin pubs do not contain a wealth of ghostlore. There are, of course, 
We’re less inclined toward the flashy, big-name haunting at 
But we also want to shine the spectral spotlight on another pub whose apparitional associations are often overlooked: 
The 1884 is so called after 
And like many pubs in the more suburban parts of Dublin, it’s absolutely enormous inside – indeed, somewhat barn-like. But it’s all very tidy, and there’s plenty of space to spread out. There are much-appreciated coat hooks under the bar, which really should be standard everywhere, but here we are. Only a few years ago, this pub was known as Grainger’s, and it had, well, a 
And while the beer selection is mostly the usual Guinness-and-Heineken-and-so-so-much-Rockshore (despite being listed as a stockist of Hope, brewed just a bit further north), there is also the lesser-spotted Kilkenny, which has been popping up here and there of late, and it’s a nice alternative. The real hidden gem of The 1884, though, is the enormous 
While it does have a theoretically reasonably interesting drinks lineup, like its fellow Bodytonic-managed bar, 
It is, of course, entirely possible that it’s simply aiming for a younger/cooler demographic, which is fair enough…though it does beg the question as to why there’s a mural of Peter Fonda on one side of the building…it’s not something that resonates with GenXers like us…are the younger Millennials into Easy Rider? We’ve been told it’s a ‘no’ from Gen Z: ‘…it’s no Taxi Driver.’
In our effort to fill in the blanks when we see you getting lost in our search results, we’re aiming to visit some of the more common pubs on the tourist trail here and there, now that the bulk of the summer holidaymakers have gone home. Indeed, this week’s pub is one we’ve only ever previously visited in that capacity, years before moving to Dublin: The Long Hall.
Visiting again with more ‘local’ eyes does make you notice different things, but the fundamentals remain the same: the beautifully-maintained – and, in this case, likely genuinely world-famous – exterior of the pub is unmistakable, with its signature red-and-off-white stripes. Inside, it’s the kind of high Victorian décor that is more commonly a pastiche these days, but The Long Hall comes by it honestly: its last real renovation was in the 1880s. And while the deep reds and dark woods are common to many other local Dublin pubs of this vintage – a subject to which we’ll return – there are unique features here, including the 
Yes, it's cheating a bit, since we just visited a new-to-us cask ale spot last week in 
The Black Sheep
Cask ale, as we have often complained, is something of a rarity in Ireland. While there are a few more pubs with a regular cask offering up in Belfast, here in Dublin, it is simply not a regular feature in most pubs. Happily, though, a tipoff from a reader (cheers, Ciaran!) alerted us to a beer engine in regular use at Harty’s Bar. Naturally, we dropped everything to go investigate.
One reason this pub had not been on our radar is that, appearances notwithstanding, it’s a fairly new establishment (but also not; bear with us) – until about 18 months ago, it was the Dingle Whiskey Bar. But like its neighbour, 
While it doesn’t have the selection of beers next door in Tapped, with its enormous bar, for a small space, it has a good lineup of some of the more standard Porterhouse beers – the Plain Porter, Yippy IPA and Red – as well as Trouble’s Ambush. There’s also Guinness, of course, and Beamish. But as you know, we were here for the cask option: this week, it was 
We know that we tend to be biased toward pubs on the north side of the Liffey, but this week, we travel (relatively) far into south Dublin – all the way to Blackrock and . Once a quiet fishing village with a sideline in 
And while the 
There are some lovely little snugs and the pub also has a bit of a nautical bent – the seafront is right here, after all – but it’s very welcoming to all; the standard Guinness (and Beamish!) is on offer, and there is good support for independent offerings like Hope and Wicklow Wolf, as well as 
Our featured Dublin pub this week is one that has been in the ‘much requested’ queue for some time. While we had to make it a flying visit, we finally got to 
Until a little over a decade ago, 
And while it can be a bit rough around the edges, likely needing a few coats of paint and some repairs here and there (not to mention having slightly-infamous toilets), that’s part of the charm. Yes, it would be nice if some of the derelict buildings surrounding The Cobblestone were used for, say, housing, but it really does feel like a landmark as-is.
Irish pubs are, broadly speaking, welcoming to all ages during the day and early evening – or, at least, they are more often than not, compared to pubs and pub-adjacent spaces in the UK or US (the never-ending ‘kids in taprooms’ debate there notwithstanding). Dublin has a wealth of pubs that are especially good at catering to families, whether it’s for a meal or just a relaxing pint for the adults and a Coke or Club Orange for the kids.
In the city centre, it might be useful to navigate by proximity to a few tourist attractions. If Temple Bar is on your list, but this is a family trip and not a stag or hen do,
Going north of the river,