Walking Dublin with FOG
Dublin is one of the cities where the percentage really moves. The centre is compact, flat and full of short streets.
Dublin on the FOG map, fog burned off along a walked route from the canal through the Georgian streets to the quays.
Small, flat and split by a river
Dublin's centre is genuinely small. The Liffey cuts it in two with quays on both banks, and you can cross the middle of the city end to end in about half an hour. South of the river the Georgian layout takes over around Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square, straight streets and brick, easy to walk in an orderly way. Around Dublin Castle and Temple Bar the pattern goes medieval, short crooked lanes with names older than any grid. North of the river O'Connell Street is wide, and the streets behind it, Henry Street and Moore Street, are tight and busy.
The centre is flat. Hills begin when you head south to Rathmines and Rathgar, or north out to Howth.
Canal to college
A good first walk: pick up the Grand Canal towpath at Portobello and follow the water east past the locks toward Baggot Street. Turn up through Fitzwilliam and Merrion Square, cut into St Stephen's Green, come out at the top of Grafton Street and walk it down to Trinity College. Then take the quays west past the Ha'penny Bridge for as long as you feel like. Five or six kilometres, no climbing, and it lights the most tightly packed part of the city.
Phoenix Park is the other classic and a completely different job. You can walk in there for two hours and add very few streets to the map.
A city percent that actually moves
Because the core is compact, Dublin is one of the cities where the figure climbs at a rate you can feel. A few weeks of ordinary commuting and evening walks will visibly light the area between the two canals, and finishing every street inside that ring is a realistic goal rather than a fantasy.
After that it opens out. The suburbs run a long way south and west, and the coastal stretch through Sandymount, Booterstown and on toward Dun Laoghaire is a long linear addition rather than a filling in. The DART makes those manageable. Ride out, walk back.
Rain, which is not the problem you expect
Dublin rain is frequent and rarely heavy. It is soft, it comes in short spells and the temperature is mild all year, so unlike a very cold or very hot city there is no season you have to sit out. Short winter days matter more than the weather does. Take a jacket, skip the umbrella on a windy day, keep walking.
Pavements are good in the centre and patchy at the edges. Some of the older lanes are cobbled and slick when wet, which is worth remembering around Temple Bar at night.
What the app records
The whole world starts under fog and only the streets you have physically walked are revealed. They stay revealed. Walking, running and riding all count, and background exploring keeps going with the app closed and the screen off.
No account, no sign-up, no cloud, no analytics, no ads, no tracking. Your map stays on the phone and you can export it. Free to explore, and a single USD 5.99 purchase unlocks unlimited ranks, every character and history import from Google Timeline exports or GPX files. No subscription.
Questions people actually ask
Could I realistically light the whole city centre?
The area between the Grand Canal and the Royal Canal is small enough that finishing it is a real goal. Greater Dublin is a much longer project.
Does walking in Phoenix Park count?
Anywhere you physically walk is revealed. A park is one large area with few streets in it, so it moves the city percent less than the same distance through Georgian terraces.
Can I import years of old Dublin walks?
Yes, with history import, which reads Google Timeline exports and GPX files. It comes with the one-time unlock.
Is any of this uploaded?
No. There is no account and no cloud. The map never leaves your phone, and you can export your own data.
Start with a dark map.
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