The Four Masters' Secret — Decode the Hidden Annals
From12€

🕒 No date to pick · Code valid 1 year · Play whenever you want

Get my code
💡City Pass from 19€All games in Dublin
Historic Heart of DublinThe Four Masters' Secret — Decode the Hidden Annals
📍 Historic Heart of Dublin·🕐 2h30 – 3h·📍 ~2.5 km
Also available as:HistoricalMysteryFantasyRomanceSupernaturalSpy thrillerCinemaFairy tale

The Four Masters' Secret — Decode the Hidden Annals

Decipher a centuries-old conspiracy to suppress the true history of Ireland. The Four Masters' original manuscripts hold secrets that powerful forces wanted buried. Uncover the truth before it's lost forever.

📱 1 to 10 phones · 1 team per phone · Independent codes

Difficulty
·From age 12 years
Starting point :Royal Irish Academy, Dawson Street

In 1632, four Irish scholars locked themselves in a Donegal monastery to compile the Annals of the Four Masters—a complete chronicle of Irish history from the earliest times to 1616

8
stages
~2.5 km
route
2h30 – 3h
at your pace
🚶
walking

The Four Masters' Secret — Decode the Hidden Annals

🎭Your Mission

You are a Royal Irish Academy archivist in Dublin, 1785, tasked with finding traces of a secret society formed by four masters: antiquarian Charles Vallancey, historian Sylvester

Dive into the secret archives of the Royal Irish Academy where four 18th-century scholars concealed evidence of a conspiracy that shaped modern Ireland.

Far more than an escape game

A game, a guided tour and a heritage guide — all in one

You're not just buying an escape game. You're carrying a living guide — historical anecdotes, forgotten legends, key monuments, hidden architecture — unfolding as you go.

🏛️
Hidden historical gems

At each stop, places ordinary guides miss — secret façades, sculpted crests, alleys steeped in history.

📜
Anecdotes & legends

Every riddle is rooted in a real historical fact or local legend. You leave with dozens of stories to tell.

🏗️
Architecture & heritage

Learn to read buildings — flamboyant Gothic, Baroque, Art Deco — like a real art historian, while having fun.

🚶‍♀️
Immersive wandering

Walk through the city like a novel's character — every alley becomes a stage, every square a theatre.

🎙️
Immersive audio narration

A voice walks with you at every step, tells the story of each place, reads clues, adds a cinematic feel.

📲
Yours forever

Keep access to the guide & game for 1 year. Come back any time, share it with friends.

« You will not leave this city the way you entered it. »

How does it work?

🏛️
Outdoor escape game

Explore the city on foot solving puzzles based on real historical facts. No locked room — the city is your playground.

📱
On your smartphone

No app to download. Play directly from your browser. Guided step by step, at your own pace.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦
Unlimited players

One purchase per phone is enough. Play with family, friends or as a couple — everyone participates.

🎯
Augmented reality

Point your phone at the façade: a historical character appears and speaks to you in your language. Golden letters magically write themselves on the wall to reveal the puzzle answer.

🤖
AI that helps you

Stuck? Progressive personalised hints. The character repeats the puzzle on demand — at your own pace.

🗣️
32 languages

French, English, German, Spanish, Italian + 27 other languages auto-translated by AI.

🎟️

Want to go deeper?

Places tied to your adventure — optional entries, totally up to you · per person

Guided tour of the Book of Kells at Trinity Collegeoptional
€16. Contemplate 8th-century Celtic illuminations that inspired our four masters' research on ancient Gaelic art.
Optionnel
/pers.
Chester Beatty Library - Irish Manuscriptsoptional
Free. Discover the collection of medieval Gaelic manuscripts that Charles O'Conor dreamed of gathering in a national library.
Optionnel
/pers.
Irish whiskey tasting at Jamesonoptional
€25. Savor the spirits our 18th-century scholars drank during their secret meetings in Dublin taverns.
Optionnel
/pers.
Evening stroll through St. Stephen's Green gardensoptional
Free. Walk in Vallancey's footsteps as he botanized here, searching for plants mentioned in ancient Gaelic texts.
Optionnel
/pers.
Budget if you do them all / pers.~0
« Ireland has a more ancient history than any other nation in Europe, and its annals reach back to a time when other peoples were still in barbarism. »
Charles O'Conor, Dissertations on the History of Ireland, 1766

The story that haunts this land

Your investigation begins at the Royal Irish Academy, founded in 1785 by Charles Vallancey himself on Dawson Street. This revolutionary institution brought together Ireland's first scholars determined to prove that Celtic civilization rivaled ancient Greece. Vallancey, a British officer converted to the Gaelic cause, accumulated ogham manuscripts and prehistoric artifacts there. In the Georgian-paneled library, your phone reveals the hiding places where he concealed his forbidden translations of the Annals of the Four Masters, a medieval chronicle that English authorities wanted to eliminate. Celtic symbols engraved on bindings decipher before your eyes, revealing the conspiracy's first clue.

The National Library of Ireland, built in 1890 on the former Leinster House site, preserves the archives of Sylvester O'Halloran, a Limerick surgeon turned historian by passion. O'Halloran published his "History of Ireland" in 1774, scandalizing London by claiming the Irish descended directly from Phoenicians. His secret correspondence with 1798 patriots remains consultable there. Your app makes his handwritten notes appear on marble columns, revealing how he coordinated intellectual resistance from his clinic. Maps he drew of pre-Norman Ireland surge in augmented reality, showing a unified country that England strove to fragment.

At the National Museum of Ireland - Archaeology, collections gathered by Charles O'Conor of Belanagare come alive under your gaze. This descendant of Connacht's last kings devoted his fortune to buying back Gaelic manuscripts scattered after Cromwellian confiscations. His 1766 "Dissertations on the History of Ireland" reconstructed 2000 years of Celtic history from sources conquerors thought destroyed. In display cases, your phone reveals coded messages he engraved on ancient jewelry and weapons, transforming each object into nationalist propaganda. Gold torcs and bronze swords become pages of a forbidden history book.

Dublin Castle, symbol of English power since 1204, paradoxically conceals the conspiracy's most compromising evidence. Edward Ledwich, the castle's official antiquarian, used his position to secretly copy administrative documents proving British massacres and spoliations. His 1790 "Antiquities of Ireland" camouflaged systematic denunciation of colonization under bland archaeological descriptions. In Bedford Tower, your app reconstructs his clandestine office where he reproduced royal seals to authenticate his false historical testimonies. Coats of arms sculpted on walls transform into accusations against their owners.

Your journey ends in St. Patrick's Park, where the four conspirators converged for secret meetings. Under linden trees planted in 1902, they buried their most sensitive archives in lead chests, creating an underground library that 1960 excavations partially revealed. Your phone reconstructs their ghostly silhouettes around the medieval well, reciting oaths that bound them. You leave certain that official history is an organized lie, and that Ireland's true memory slumbers in every Dublin stone, awaiting someone who knows how to decipher it.

1632
Start of the compilation of the Annals of the Four Masters.
1616
Final year covered by the Annals, documenting the end of a Gaelic era.
1848
Beginning of the publication of the critical edition of the Annals by John O'Donovan.

The Route

8 stages through the city

The gameplay: AR, camera, hidden clues

📱Search clues with your cameraRA

At each stop, open your phone camera: an augmented reality character appears on the façade and speaks your language. Hunt the clue — it materializes as golden letters on the real wall or floats in front of you. When you find it, the phone vibrates, an AR chest opens and reveals your answer fragment. 8 stops, 8 clues to find with the camera, 1 final code.

🎭

The stops on your route are a surprise. You'll discover them one by one, guided by your phone, starting from the meeting point.

8
original puzzles
24
min of narration
🪙 24
TripCoins granted
16
GPS waypoints

How does it work with a group?

One phone = one team. Pick the number at checkout (1 to 10).

🧍
1 phone

Solo, or a group sharing the screen. One team, one code.

👥
2-3 phones

Family, couple, or 2-3 teams competing. Each phone has its own code and its own score.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦
4 to 10 phones

Friends, bachelor/bachelorette, small office outing — each their own code, each plays at their own pace. Tiered pricing then €6 flat per phone from the 6th.

  • All codes are independent — play at the same time OR separately, each team advances at its own pace.
  • Leaderboard between your teams + global game leaderboard — each score appears in the public ranking.
  • More than 10 phones or need a personalized quest? Discover custom tours.
🕒No date to pick · Code valid 1 year · Play whenever you want

Ready to live this adventure?

Get my code · 12€

No calendar booking. Code sent immediately by email.

🔒 Secure payment · Code in 5 min · Free cancellation

Practical info

Starting point
Royal Irish Academy, Dawson Street
Directions on Google Maps
🕐
Duration
2h30 – 3h
At your own pace
👥
Players
Unlimited
From age 12
📍
Distance
~2.5 km
Historic city center
Accessibility
Partial
Old pavements, busy areas
🌐
Languages
17 languages
Built-in translation

Why this route?

📜

Ancient Manuscripts

Track clues scattered throughout Dublin's historic heart to reconstruct a lost folio from the legendary Annals of the Four Masters.

🌳

Gaelic Heritage

Dive into the richness of Irish history, from its mythical origins to the era of conquests, and rediscover the soul of a nation.

🕵️

Scholarly Quest

Follow in the footsteps of annalists and scholars who fought to preserve Ireland's memory against oblivion.

The whispers of the past will never fade if someone listens for them.

Preserve the voice of Irish history.

★ Innovation 2026

9 features nobody else has

OddballTrip combines gamified play, augmented reality and AI. All our competitors deliver 1 or 2 of these angles. We deliver all 5.

🎁

AR treasure chest

A golden chest floats in front of the monument. Tap → opening animation → reveals a secret message.

🧙

AR narrator character

Point your phone at the façade: a knight, witch, monk, sailor, detective or ghost appears full-screen and speaks to you in your language with their dedicated ElevenLabs voice (each character has their own unique voice) — your living guide.

📜

Magic golden letters

At the puzzle climax, golden letters magically write themselves on the real wall — that's the puzzle answer. An unforgettable visual effect.

🎧

Written + audio narration

Every puzzle available as text AND voice-over: read at your own pace or listen eyes-free while walking. Great in groups and for accessibility.

🧭

360° radar + vibration

A mini-radar shows the target even behind you, and the phone vibrates when you aim in the right direction.

📸

Heritage storytelling

Every puzzle weaves in real historical facts (architecture, era, anecdotes). You learn by playing — like a gamified audioguide.

🤖

Progressive AI hints

3 levels of AI-generated help: vibe → where to look → answer format. You're never stuck.

🤳

AR selfie memento

At the end of the game, capture a selfie with OddballTrip banner + mascot, shareable on Instagram, TikTok.

📱

Zero app to install

PWA technology: open the link, it plays in your browser. Same quality as an app, no App Store hassle.

Frequently asked questions

Q01Do I need to download an app?

No, never. You get a link, you click, it plays in your browser. That's the point of a PWA: same as an app, without the hassle.

Q02Does it work offline?

GPS yes (handled by your phone). Maps yes (tiles cached). AI and hints need an intermittent 4G connection.

Q03How long does a game take?

1 h 30 to 2 h 30 depending on your pace. The timer runs but only for the leaderboard — you play at your own tempo.

Q04What happens if I'm stuck?

You get 3 levels of hints per puzzle (increasing penalty). If truly stuck, you can skip the step (45-min penalty but you keep going).

Q05What's the age range?

From 12 without an adult, from 6 with an adult reading puzzles. Works for families, couples, friend groups, companies.

Q06What if my city isn't in the catalogue?

Pre-register or contact us — we'll email you as soon as your city is live.

Q07What is augmented reality exactly?

Point your phone at the façade: a historical character appears full-screen and speaks to you in your language. At the puzzle climax, golden letters magically write themselves on the real wall — that's your answer. After each puzzle solved, a treasure chest floats in front of you. Seeing is believing.

Avis des aventuriers

Soyez le premier à partager votre expérience.

Did you play les annales oubliees des quatre maitres? Check the email you received after your game to leave a verified review.

Your turn to play

Dive into the secret archives of the Royal Irish Academy where four 18th-century scholars concealed evidence of a conspiracy that shaped modern Ireland.

12€
1 phone
23€
2 phones
33€
3 phones
42€
4 phones
50€
5 phones
56€
6 phones
62€
7 phones
68€
8 phones
74€
9 phones
80€
10 phones

1 purchase = 1 phone. Play several on the same device.

🕒No date to pick · Code valid 1 year · Play whenever you want
Get my code · 12€

No calendar booking. Code sent immediately by email.

🔒Secure payment · Code in 5 min · Free cancellation

🪙+24 TripCoins granted with your booking

Other escape games in Historic Heart of Dublin

See all games in Historic Heart of Dublin

More ideas for self-guided walking tours, scavenger hunts & city quests in the same city

Explore other cities in Irlande

🎟️Coupe-file

Réservez vos entrées maintenant

Coupe-file disponibles pour les sites payants de votre parcours. Gagnez du temps, vivez l'aventure pleinement.

💡 Réservation optionnelle — vous pouvez aussi acheter sur place. Tous les liens ouvrent dans une nouvelle fenêtre, votre visite OddballTrip reste préservée.