The world-famous Long Room Library in Trinity College, Dublin.

The Long Room Library is rightly counted as one of the great, most beautiful libraries in the world, and is one of Ireland's most visited attractions.

It holds many rare and ancient texts, most notably The Book of Kells, The Book of Durrow, and The Book of Armagh. Over 200,000 texts are normally stored in the lofty vaults you see here in the 360-degree panorama but are currently in storage for repair and conservation to preserve them. The €90 million project will see the conservation of another half a million books as well as the shelves and structure of the Long Room Library itself.

The Book of Kells is the biggest draw to the Long Room Library, an illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels, written ca. 800AD. Another exhibit includes an original copy of the Proclamation of The Republic from The Easter Rising in 1916; also on display is the oldest Irish Harp in existence (15th C.) - the same Harp as features on Irish Euro coins.

James Joyce descibed the Book of Kells as "the most purely Irish thing we have".

The Long Room served as inspiration for the Jedi Library in Star Wars. Did the Long Room Library appear in the Harry Potter films? I have seen it mentioned all over the internet that somehow Trinity's Long Room is associated with Harry Potter, but it isn't. In fact the library used in the Harry Potter films is a reading room in the Radcliffe Camera at Oxford University's Bodleian Library with its traciered windows clearly visible, an architectural style not present in the Long Room. 

Visitors to the library can see the Long Room Library as featured here with its gleaming marble busts of famous Irish writers including Jonathan Swift and the ancient philosophers. Construction was complete on the library in 1732 but it was not until 1860 that the library took its current form with the double height gallery bookcases and vaulted ceilings that you can see in the 360-panorama above. At 65m in length it is quite easy to see why it is called the Long Room.

The price for entry to the Book of Kells and the Long Room Library is at least €18.50 for an adult, with some reductions available for groups, children and others. Do bear in mind that there may be long queues to get to the Book of Kells but this can give you the option of viewing the magnificent library for a little longer.

The Long Room Library is located in Trinity College right in the centre of Dublin at College Green.

Opening Hours:

Mon-Sat (April to 30th of September): 08:30-17:00

Sun (April to 30th of September): 09:30-17:00

Mon-Sat (October to 31st of March): 09:30-17:00

Sun (October to 31st of March): 12:00-16:30

We here at panoramicireland.com were the first to create a 360 degree panorama of the Long Room Library, contact us for more information and to book one of our photo tours of Dublin.


**UPDATE** The Long Room Library has been cleared of most of its hundreds of thousands of books, as part of a large scale conservation project to ensure the tomes don't suffer from any more deterioration. There are currently a limited number of books on the shelves, currently in the first four sections but the Book of Kells itself is still on display and is still a great attraction overall.

Enjoy the view of the book-filled shelves with the panorama above.