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College Green, facing the West Front entrance to Trinity, was originally called Hoggen Green. The statues of Edmund Burke and Oliver Goldsmith which flank the entrance are the work of the sculptor John Foley.

This 30-m (100-ft) bell-tower is the centrepiece of Trinity’s main quad, enclosed by fine 18th- and 19th-century buildings. Built by Sir Charles Lanyon, the architect of Queen’s University in Belfast, in 1853, it marks the site of All Hallows monastery.

Entry to the Old Library, built between 1712 and 1732, is from Fellows’ Square. The finest feature is the magnificent 64-m (200-ft) Long Room, with two tiers of antiquated oak bookcases holding more than 200,000 books. The barrel-vaulted ceiling was added in 1860. The collection grows yearly as Trinity is entitled to copies of all titles published in Ireland and the UK.

This beautifully decorated illuminated manuscript is one of the city’s most treasured possessions. It is thought to date from around AD 800 and is believed to be the work of monks from the island of Iona in Scotland. They moved to Kells in County Meath to escape Viking raids and the book was eventually given to Trinity by the Bishop of Meath in 1654.

Both the hall and the chapel were designed by the Scottish architect Sir William Chambers in the 1780s. The most memorable feature is the gilded oak chandelier.

The chapel, completed in 1798, is the only one in Ireland shared by all denominations. The fine stained-glass window above the altar dates from 1867.

Just beside the chapel, this grand dining hall, where Trinity’s many students eat, was originally built by Richard Cassels in 1742, but it has been considerably altered over the the past 250 years. It has been totally restored after a fire in 1984 and the walls are hung with huge portraits of college dignitaries.

This fine Venetian-style building was designed by Sir Thomas Deane and Benjamin Woodward and completed in 1857. Inside, a pair of giant Irish deer skeletons stand guard in the magnificent hall. The detailed decoration of smaller animals, birds and flowers was carved by the O’Shea brothers.

In front of Paul Koralek’s 1967 creation is the sculpture Sphere within a Sphere (1982) by Arnaldo Pomodoro.

One of Ireland’s leading contemporary art galleries, the Douglas Hyde has exhibitions by both emerging and well-established artists from Ireland and abroad.