They ask you to download this app to get the book of kells tour. Of the 12 “stops” only 4 worked for me. I dumped and re-downloaded the app. It did not help. The good news is, there is pleanty of printed information within the book of kells exhibit to get a good understanding of the history of the book.

If you buy a ticket to the Book of Kells Experience in advance, the system now sends you a suggestion to bring your own headphones along, which is the only reason I did, so I at least appreciate that. But according to their own materials, the app is supposed to trigger audio when you get near a relevant point and on my iPhone that never once happened. There are also no signs telling you when you’ve reached an audio point (as is typical at museums/sites with audio guides) so it took me at least ten minutes in the extremely crowded exhibition before I realized it was completely up to me to regularly check the app to try to figure out if I was at an audio point. The content itself is good (albeit not as in-depth as I personally would have expected) but even with noise-canceling AirPods, I had to turn the volume to maximum and still sometimes had difficulty hearing as there were fellow visitors listening to the audio guide on speakerphone and no staff ever asked them to stop.

I don’t know why there are so many negative reviews. My sister and I both downloaded and used this app with no problems while visiting Trinity College and during the Book of Kells tour. Also there is wifi inside where the Book of Kells is. You might wanna download the app before you arrive but it is not a necessity.

This app works well enough but is ideal for use with headphones. The exhibit is crowded so if you don’t have headphones you’ll be tempted to hold it to your ear and will inadvertently pause the audio or play a different stop. It would’ve been better if these controls were positioned lower on the screen so your ear doesn’t hit one of the controls when you’re trying to listen.