The Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin — Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

The Shelbourne has been Dublin's grandest hotel since Martin Burke, a native of County Tipperary, founded it in 1824 on St. Stephen's Green. Burke created the hotel from three adjoining townhouses and named it after William Petty, the 2nd Earl of Shelburne, lending it aristocratic credentials from the start.

The guest list over two centuries reads like a cultural encyclopedia. William Makepeace Thackeray stayed in 1842 and later featured the hotel in The Irish Sketch-Book. During Hollywood's Golden Age, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford all called The Shelbourne their Dublin home.

The hotel's most historically significant moment came in 1922, when the Constitution of the Irish Free State was drafted in Room 112, now known as The Constitution Room. The document that formalized Irish independence was written within these walls, making The Shelbourne not just a luxury hotel but a birthplace of the modern Irish state.

During the 1916 Easter Rising, 40 British troops occupied the building under Captain Andrews, and the hotel witnessed the fighting that raged through the surrounding streets.

Known as "The Grand Dame of Dublin," The Shelbourne continues to operate as a five-star luxury hotel overlooking St. Stephen's Green. Its afternoon tea, its bar, and its dining rooms carry the weight of two centuries of history.

A Questo quest through Dublin's Georgian quarter passes The Shelbourne, connecting the hotel's stories to the wider narrative of Irish independence and cultural life.