Sunday 12 to 11:30 pmRecorded 2026-09-11
Check with the pub before travelling.Our shared benchmark: Guinness Draught, one standard pint (568 ml). Dated observations from menus, receipts and the people who were there.
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Previous standard pint observations. A repeat at the same price is a confirmation, not an increase. Approximate dates keep their original precision.
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Preserved directory details. Recorded information can change.
Reviewed pub lore
Established
A hostelry has stood on the Bridge Street site since 1198, by the pub's own reckoning — making this widely regarded as Ireland's oldest pub. The present building was built in 1754 as a coaching inn; the pub appears in surviving documents as far back as 1653.
Earlier uses
Built at the head of the River Liffey, where Norman soldiers guarded the gate that provided the only access into Dublin. On cold, damp nights the soldiers would warm their hands over braziers — barrels of fire — from which the pub takes its name.
Literary links
Drinking ground for Brendan Behan and Jonathan Swift — both names that turn up in the regulars list across multiple eras.
Military history
The Brazen Head narrowly survived the intense fighting of the 1922 Irish Civil War. It served, at various times, as plotting-room for the United Irishmen, meeting place for Daniel O'Connell, and hiding place for Michael Collins.
Architecture
There has been a public house and hotel on this site since 1198, with a record in 1703 of a James King being granted all that large timber house called the Brazen Head. Rebuilt in the mid eighteenth century, the building has a long association with the history of Dublin.
Regulars
Robert Emmet, Edmund Burke, Daniel O'Connell, Henry Grattan and Wolfe Tone all drank here, plotting the future of Ireland over pints. Brendan Behan, Jonathan Swift and Michael Collins are all part of the pub's lore — Collins having sought refuge within its walls during the War of Independence.
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Source observations, not owner-confirmed. Missing fields do not mean a service is unavailable.