The Sunday market in Dún Laoghaire: a food-first guide

Every Sunday the dlr CoCo market sets up across two linked locations in Dún Laoghaire, and the split matters if you are there to eat. The food village clusters around the LexIcon library on the seafront. The artisan, craft, secondhand-book and art stalls run along the Metals path and down into the People's Park. Roughly fifty vendors trade across the two. If you want lunch, start at the LexIcon end; if you want to browse afterwards, walk the Metals up to the park.

When it runs

The market runs Sundays, with stalls usually trading from around 10am to 4pm. Check the dlr CoCo market listing before a special trip, since hours and the exact layout can shift seasonally and in bad weather some food stalls shelter under the LexIcon overhang. Late morning is the sweet spot: hot food is ready, the queues are short, and the seafront is not yet at full capacity. By one o'clock the LexIcon end is busy and the popular hot stalls have lines.

The food village by the LexIcon

This is the hot-food end. Expect a rotating cast of cooked-to-order stalls: international street food has included Korean noodles, Italian sausage and seafood, alongside Irish artisan producers selling bread, cheese, cured meats and seasonal vegetables. The exact traders vary week to week, so treat any specific stall as a maybe rather than a fixture. The practical move is to walk the full row once before committing, then eat looking out over the harbour. There is no indoor seating tied to the market itself; people eat standing, on the harbour wall, or take it into the park.

The craft end and the People's Park

Follow the Metals, the old granite-set path that runs from the seafront up towards the park, and the character changes. This stretch and the park itself carry the handmade crafts, contemporary art, and secondhand books. It is the slower, browse-and-chat half of the market. The People's Park has been open since 1890 and has a bandstand, two fountains, a playground and a café in the Victorian shelter, so it works as a natural end point: buy coffee, sit down, and let anyone with you who is done shopping wait it out.

Eating well without overpaying

Market hot food is priced as market hot food: a main from a street-food stall typically runs higher than a supermarket lunch and lower than a sit-down restaurant. Prices vary by trader, so check before you order rather than assuming. Bring cash as a backup; most stalls take cards now but a busy Sunday and a patchy signal on the seafront can defeat a card reader. If you are buying artisan produce to take home, the bread and cheese stalls tend to sell out of the best stuff by early afternoon, so do that shopping first and eat second.

Getting there

The DART to Dún Laoghaire (station code DLERY) puts you a few minutes' walk from the LexIcon end; turn towards the sea from the station. Drivers should use the Bloomfields Shopping Centre car park or the harbour car park rather than circling the seafront, which fills up on a fine Sunday. The whole market is flat and walkable between the two ends, and the LexIcon has accessible public toilets during library hours.

Making a morning of it

The market sits beside the East Pier, the LexIcon, and the People's Park, so it slots neatly into a wider morning. A common local pattern: pier walk first while it is quiet, market for lunch, then the park or the library reading rooms to sit out the afternoon. If the weather turns, the LexIcon is the obvious bolt-hole, warm, free, and two minutes from the food stalls.