A 300-year-old library chamber in the educational epicenter of Dublin, Ireland, has become world-famous for its stunning interior and treasure trove of rare titles, some of them over a century old. For book lovers of all ages, both the collection and the setting are the stuff of fairy tales.
The Long Room at the Old Library at Trinity College in Dublin—Ireland’s largest library—is a grand, 213-foot-long wood-paneled chamber with barrel-vaulted ceilings and uniform floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. On these shelves sit some 200,000 rare books, accessible by sliding ladders and cordoned off to all but those with express permission to handle them….