Things to see in Waterford, Ireland: The world's shortest walking tour

Don't let the name fool you: you won't be wearing out any shoe leather on Waterford's cheekily named Epic Tour. The only thing that's epic about this particular tour is the sweep of Irish history that it covers, from the Vikings to the Victorians. In all other aspects, from duration (45 minutes) to distance (it covers around two kilometres, much of it undercover) – this tour is far from taxing.

It is, however, remarkably illuminating. When my guide Ritchie promises that, "We'll cover 1000 years of history in 1000 paces," he's not joking.

As Ireland's oldest city, home to no fewer than six national monuments, Waterford is the perfect place for a crash course on Irish history. Our tour starts with the Vikings, who established a winter port on the future site of Waterford in 850CE. Once it got too cold for raiding, they would hunker down here for the winter, waiting until spring to take to the rivers again.

That ancient Viking settlement influenced the shape of today's city. The city's most prominent landmark – the 12th-century tower built by the Anglo-Normans known as Reginald's Tower – is built on the same spot where an ancient Viking tower once stood.

Speaking of the Anglo Normans, their arrival at Waterford in 1169 was another major turning point. After troops headed by the Earl of Pembroke invaded at the behest of the deposed King of Leinster, Dermot MacMurrough, Waterford became the setting for what Ritchie describes as the "the most important wedding in Irish history". Pembroke's marriage to MacMurrough's daughter Aoife entitled him to rule Leinster after MacMurrough's death. Ritchie pinpoints this as the start of 700 years of English rule in Ireland.

MacMurrough and Pembroke are well-known figures in Irish history; however, we also learn about the life stories of lesser-known locals such as William Vincent Wallace. Wallace was a musical prodigy who, at the age of eight, was already composing marches. Wallace grew up to be a celebrated violinist and emigrated to Hobart in 1835. He moved on to Sydney, where he opened the first music school in Australia in Hunter Street and became known as "the Australian Paganini".

Wallace is not the only Waterford lad to have had a stint Down Under. Revered nationalist Thomas Francis Meagher – leader of the Young Irelanders in the 1848 rebellion, the man who first flew the Irish tricolour flag – was transported for life to Van Diemen's Land to after being found guilty of sedition.