The crypts of St Michan's in Dublin: the 1686 church with the mummified bodies

On Church Street, in Dublin 7, on the north side of the Liffey and a few steps from the Four Courts, stands a grey stone church that many people walk past without stopping. Some 130 metres away is the Jameson Distillery on Bow Street, and most visitors head straight there. St Michan's, instead, stays off to one side, and yet it holds one of the city's most unusual experiences: its underground crypts, where bodies have been naturally mummified for centuries.

The church

The church you see today dates from 1686, rebuilt to a design by the architect William Robinson, the same man behind the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham. But the place of worship is far older: a chapel stood here as early as 1095, of Norse origin, and it is the only parish on the north bank born from the Viking foundation of the city. Today it is a Church of Ireland church (not to be confused with the Dublin Catholic church of the same name). Inside there is also a historic organ within an eighteenth-century wooden case, and a carved panel with musical instruments above the gallery.

The crypts

The reason to descend, however, is beneath the floor. In the vaults, the bodies have mummified without any human intervention: the walls contain limestone, which has kept the air dry, creating the ideal conditions for preservation. For generations visitors were led down to see bodies that had remained intact for centuries, among them a woman believed to be a nun who died about four hundred years earlier and a man nearly two metres tall nicknamed "The Crusader", estimated at around eight hundred years old. Figures of Irish history also rest in the crypts: the brothers John and Henry Sheares, United Irishmen executed in the rebellion of 1798, and a death mask of Wolfe Tone.

It must be said plainly, because it changes the experience: the mummies have suffered severe damage. In 2019 there was an act of vandalism and the theft of the head of "The Crusader", later recovered; in 2024 an arson attack destroyed five bodies, including "The Crusader" himself. Today the visit turns as much around what has survived as around conservation and loss. There is still much to see in the vaults, from the coffins of the Sheares brothers to the history of the site, told by the guide on the spot.

The visit

Entry is only by a guided tour in small groups, and this is what keeps the experience intimate and calm even in high season. The hours have changed often in recent years: as a rule visits run Monday to Thursday (some sources say Tuesday to Thursday), in two approximate slots, morning around 10:00-12:30 and afternoon around 14:00-16:00, with tickets bought on arrival. Precisely because the schedule can change at short notice and closures for damage have already happened, it is worth checking before you go. There is an admission ticket, whose proceeds support the restoration of the church and the protection of the crypt; photography is not allowed in the vaults and the bodies may no longer be touched.

How to get there

To get there: from the centre it is about a ten-minute walk from the Temple Bar area across the river, or you can get off at the Four Courts stop on the red line of the Luas (the tram), a couple of minutes on foot. The crypt floor is uneven, so flat shoes are best; the space is not wheelchair accessible. A short stop, easily paired with a visit to the Jameson Distillery right next door.

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