Howth: Food fit for a king at the Brass Monkey

Brass Monkey, 12 West Pier, Howth, Co Dublin; tel: [phone]; brassmonkey.ie

SHORTLY after his coronation in 1821, King George IV visited Dublin. Copious amounts of goose pie and Irish whiskey didn’t go to waste during the crossing, by all accounts, and by the time the idle monarch stepped onto the pier at Howth, he was staggeringly squiffy.

The king did, however, manage to stand still for the short time it took to cast his footprints in stone at the end of the West Pier. And they remain there almost two centuries later — a pair of dandyish prints with heels and curves worthy of any catwalk.