October is one of those months when people ask me what Dublin is like and I have to resist saying:
“Which October?”
Because Dublin in October can mean sitting outside with a coffee wondering why you packed the heavy coat.
Or it can mean rain coming sideways across O’Connell Bridge while your umbrella turns itself inside out and you begin questioning every decision that brought you to Ireland.
Sometimes both happen before lunch.
I spent 15 years taking people around Dublin and October was always one of the more interesting months to do it. The big summer crowds had thinned out, the trees were changing colour, the pubs felt like pubs again rather than international conference centres and you could occasionally cross a street without losing half your group.
So if you’re thinking about visiting Dublin in October, here’s what it’s actually like.
Not the brochure version.
The version where you need a waterproof jacket.
First: October in Dublin isn’t actually that cold
This surprises people.
According to Met Éireann’s long-term figures for Dublin Airport, the average daily maximum in October is about 13.6°C, with an average minimum of about 7.1°C.
That’s hardly Arctic.
The problem is that 13°C in Dublin has several different personalities.
Thirteen degrees, dry and sunny? Lovely.
Thirteen degrees with a breeze coming up the Liffey? Coat weather.
Thirteen degrees, rain and wind while you’re standing on College Green waiting for someone from your tour group who has somehow gone to the wrong Trinity College?
Miserable.
The temperature on your weather app rarely tells the whole story.
Wind and rain are what you’ll notice.
Yes, it rains
I’m afraid there’s no clever local secret here.
October is a wet month. Met Éireann’s climate figures put average October rainfall in Dublin at around 79mm.
But don’t imagine 31 days of biblical rain.
Dublin rain has a habit of appearing, disappearing and then coming back once you’ve decided it’s safe to put the umbrella away.
You can leave a hotel in sunshine, get soaked crossing the Liffey and arrive at St Stephen’s Green under blue sky.
I used to watch tourists react to this as though the Irish government had personally arranged it.
The best approach is not to plan your entire day around the forecast. Have a rough route, carry something waterproof and keep a couple of indoor options in mind.
And don’t rely too heavily on an umbrella.
Dublin wind considers umbrellas a challenge.
October might actually be one of the nicest times to walk around Dublin
This is the bit the weather statistics don’t tell you.
Dublin looks good in autumn.
St Stephen’s Green in particular can be beautiful once the leaves start changing. I’ve spent more time in that park than was probably necessary, including the occasion when I managed to get myself locked inside St Stephen’s Green.
I also had a particular bench in St Stephen’s Green that became one of my favourite places in the city after years of guiding.
October is when places like that start feeling different.
Grafton Street is still busy but generally not summer-busy. You can wander through Trinity and College Green, cross the river, walk around the Georgian streets and actually look at things instead of negotiating around enormous groups following somebody holding an umbrella in the air.
If you get a crisp, dry October morning, Dublin is a very good walking city.
Take advantage of it.
Because at 2pm it might rain.
What should you actually pack?
Layers.
That’s the boring answer because it’s the correct answer.
You don’t need expedition equipment. You do need clothes that let you adapt when the weather changes three times.
I’d bring:
- a proper waterproof jacket
- a jumper or fleece
- comfortable shoes that won’t become sponges
- a couple of lighter layers
- something slightly warmer for evenings
- a small umbrella if you insist, although don’t become emotionally attached to it
I’d worry more about waterproof footwear than extreme cold.
If you’re spending the day walking around Dublin with wet socks, the Book of Kells could personally start talking to you and you’d still be thinking about your feet.
The shorter days matter more than you might expect
Early October still gives you a decent sightseeing day.
By the end of the month, things change noticeably. Ireland’s clocks also go back on the final Sunday of October, so late-October evenings suddenly feel much darker.
That matters if you’re planning a lot of outdoor sightseeing.
Do the walking first.
Parks, streets, bridges and anything where daylight improves the experience should go earlier in the day. Save museums, galleries and pubs for later.
Especially pubs.
We designed those for precisely this situation.
October is excellent pub weather
There is a moment every autumn when going into a Dublin pub stops feeling like drinking indoors and starts feeling like shelter.
October is usually when it happens.
You’ve been walking for two hours. Your coat is damp. It’s getting dark. Then you open a pub door and there’s that combination of warmth, low lighting, conversation and somebody already halfway through a pint at four in the afternoon.
Suddenly the rain seems like quite a good idea.
Just don’t assume you have to drink in Temple Bar.
You should certainly see the area. It’s part of Dublin and pretending otherwise would be ridiculous. But read my explanation of what Temple Bar actually is before deciding to spend your entire evening there.
If what you really want is a pint somewhere less touristy, I’ve also written about where to drink in Dublin if you hate tourist pubs.
October makes those places even better.
Rain outside.
Pint inside.
Ireland has built quite a tourism industry around this basic arrangement.
What about the crowds?
Generally, they’re much more manageable than in peak summer.
That’s one of October’s biggest advantages.
Dublin is never exactly empty. It’s a capital city and people actually live and work here, despite what parts of Temple Bar might lead you to believe.
But the atmosphere is different once the main summer season has passed.
When I was guiding, this was noticeable immediately.
Smaller groups.
Fewer people blocking pavements.
Less time waiting for somebody who had wandered into a souvenir shop.
More chance to stop somewhere and actually explain what everyone was looking at.
I’ve written before about the amount of my life I spent waiting at O’Connell Bridge.
October was generally kinder to me.
Have a rainy-day plan, but don’t make it your main plan
People sometimes look at the forecast, see rain symbols and immediately decide they’ll spend their Dublin trip indoors.
Don’t.
If Dubliners did that we’d emerge from our houses sometime around May.
A shower isn’t necessarily a ruined morning. Put the waterproof on and carry on.
But when the weather genuinely turns unpleasant, Dublin gives you plenty of places to retreat to. Museums, galleries, cafés, churches and, yes, pubs are all useful.
The trick is flexibility.
If it’s dry at 10am, don’t say, “We’ll do the outdoor stuff tomorrow.”
Do it now.
Tomorrow knows what you said and will punish your optimism.
There is one October problem nobody talks about enough
Wet leaves.
They look lovely.
They photograph beautifully.
They are also nature’s attempt to kill you.
Cobblestones, paving stones and fallen leaves after rain can be surprisingly slippery. This becomes particularly entertaining when somebody is simultaneously walking, looking at Google Maps and trying to photograph a building behind them.
Slow down.
Dublin city centre isn’t enormous. You don’t need to march around it as though the airport gate is closing.
In fact, one of my favourite ways of seeing the city was simply walking without much purpose. I wrote about the walk I used to do after finishing a tour and October is exactly the sort of month when that route can be at its best.
So, is October a good time to visit Dublin?
Yes.
With conditions.
If your idea of a city break requires guaranteed sunshine, outdoor lunches every day and evenings sitting outside in a T-shirt, I have another city to recommend to you.
My brother keeps telling me about Valencia.
Apparently they have this thing called reliable weather.
Sounds suspicious.
But if you want Dublin when it’s slightly quieter, a bit moodier and arguably more like itself, October is a very good choice.
You might get rain.
You probably will get rain.
You might also get one of those bright autumn mornings when St Stephen’s Green is turning gold, Grafton Street hasn’t quite filled up yet and the city looks far better than Dublin has any right to look considering what the sky was doing an hour earlier.
And when the weather finally turns?
Find a pub.
Take the wet coat off.
Order something.
You’ve understood Dublin remarkably quickly.
