Dublin for The Family Explorers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

Viking and medieval Dublin in a Victorian hall by the cathedral: try on the chain mail, smell the plague street, climb the tower if the children have legs left.

The lawn behind the castle on the site of the black pool that named the city, with a snake pattern in the grass and walls to sit on.

Chicken wings by the basket and burgers in a loud Temple Bar room that has fed children since 1989; booths at the back are the quiet ones.

Bus 46a to the 1831 zoo in the park: the African savanna, the orangutan rope bridge, and a flat loop that works with a buggy.

A playground, a Victorian walled garden and a medieval tower house to run round after the nap, with the deer in the grass beyond the fence.

Fresh pasta made in the window, a short menu the children can read, and bowls that arrive fast; a bus ride back towards the centre.

DART to the fishing village, then the pier walk to the lighthouse with seals begging below the fish shops; the cliff path is for the grown-ups another day.

Fish and chips from a family who have fried them since 1913, eaten on the harbour wall with the gulls kept at arm's length.

A storytelling house of giant furniture and a tunnel into a rainbow, with a guide who keeps the folklore honest; forty-five minutes, booked by slot.

Twenty galleries under the vaults of a bonded warehouse, interactive enough that the children stamp a passport through it; allow ninety minutes.

A replica famine ship moored by the museum, with a guided tour below decks that explains the bunks without frightening anyone under eight.

A former mill by the Ha'penny Bridge with a children's menu, high chairs and a plate of fish fingers that are actually fish, before the Airlink.