South of Dublin lies part of the city's playground. The purple crescent the Dublin Mountains sweeps round west to east, the River Dodder trickles down from Kippure, and on the coast of wide bays and charming little seaside villages the atmosphere can be positively Mediterranean in summer. Tourists arriving by ferry from Britain at Dun Laoghaire can gaze at the bobbing yachts in the sheltered harbour.

Out past Ballsbridge and Clonskeagh with Maud Gonne's home, Roebuck Lodge, the coastal road runs through fashionable Blackrock with its open air saltwater swimming baths and two Martello towers.

Dun Laoghaire. From the Irish for Leary's Fort and pronounced Dunleery the borough's population is over 55,000.

Yachting is the town's pleasant obsession and two yacht clubs, the National and the Royal St George are based here.

Appropriate then in the Haig Terrace, in what was once the mariner's church, is the National Maritime Museum Tel: (01) 286 2539. Amongst the displays is a model of the steamship the Great Eastern, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's transatlantic cable layer, commanded by Wicklow man Captain Robert Halpin.

Monkstown is home to the Lambert Mews Puppet Theatre and Culturlaan na hEireann, the Irish Cultural Institute.

Once a tiny fishing village, the town grew with the the coming of the railways and the opening of the cross-channel ferry-port. In 1821 it was called Kingstown for George IVth's visit. In 1920 it regained its original name. There are sea angling facilities, tennis courts and municipal swimming pools at Killiney, Seapoint, and Sandycove all within a few miles. There is also an 18 hole golf course. Leopardstown Races are but three miles (5k) off.