Dublin Castle, Trim and Malahide: Tickets and Access
8 listings and 6,163 reviews, 6,113 of them on tours that name Dublin Castle. The campus is shut to visitors until January 2027; Malahide is 17.50 EUR with real timed slots, Trim's keep is 5.
Eight listings cover the Dublin castles in this catalogue, and four of them name Dublin Castle in the title. Those four carry 6,113 of the 6,163 reviews written about the eight, which is 99 percent of everything anyone has said about a castle in Dublin here. The castle itself has been closed to the public since 15 June 2026. The Office of Public Works, which runs it, says the campus stays closed until January 2027, because Ireland holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union for the second half of 2026 and the state is working out of the building.
That is not a detail to bury under a price. A tour sold today for October that promises the Book of Kells, Trinity College and Dublin Castle can deliver the first two. What it puts in place of the third is between you and the operator, and no catalogue can verify a substitution in advance. Read the itinerary before the price, and if the castle is the reason you are booking, book it for 2027.
Two castles within reach of Dublin are open, and they could hardly be run more differently. Malahide, north of the city on the DART line, sells guided tours and nothing else: 17.50 EUR for an adult, about 45 minutes, in real timed slots, up to eight of them a day. When we checked the booking engine on 5 September 2026 it had nothing left before the following morning. Trim, out in County Meath, sells nothing in advance at all. The grounds there are free, the keep costs 5 EUR, tickets change hands at a desk at the top of the causeway, and the OPW warns in writing that access to the keep tour cannot be guaranteed during the summer.
One of the two is in this catalogue and the other is not. Three of the eight listings drive out to Trim, all of them private tours at 585 to 699 EUR that also take in the Hill of Tara or Newgrange. Not one of the eight names Malahide, which is the open castle, the cheap one, and the only one in the county that will sell you a time.
By Irish standards the Dublin catalogue is short and cheap. The median listing costs 163.50 EUR against 650 out of Cork, the median length is 225 minutes against 450, and two of the eight confirm immediately while two declare reserved access, which is two more of each than the whole of Cork manages. The spread is wide even so, because the third quartile sits at 645 EUR. Four of the eight are private tours, and three of those four leave the city altogether. Every one of the eight cancels free, and none of them runs for two hours or less, which in a city catalogue is unusual and says something about what these products actually are: guided walks of three hours or private days of seven, with nothing in between and no entry ticket anywhere among them.
Buy the Newgrange Ticket Yourself, and Do It a Month in Advance
A tomb older than Giza, the seat of the high kings, and a Norman castle: the guide covers all three, but the Newgrange ticket is bought by you, online.
Tea in the Ruins Where Braveheart Was Filmed, and an Hour Inside Trim
Up to six people, hotel pickup, an hour inside Trim Castle, and tea and coffee among the ruins of Bective Abbey, where Braveheart shot several scenes.
The Stone That Roars for a True King, and a Group of No More Than Three
One to three people in the car, the Lia Fáil on the hill, the second Cistercian abbey founded in Ireland, and the cruciform keep Hugh de Lacy built at Trim.
Cockles and Mussels at the Statue, and the Castle from the Outside
Fast-track entry to the Book of Kells at a quiet hour, then a guided walk to the castle exterior and gardens, and a verse of Cockles and Mussels at the statue.
Swift's Own Cathedral First, and an Upgrade That Ends at Guinness
This one starts at St Patrick's, where Jonathan Swift was Dean, before Trinity and the castle. The six-hour upgrade finishes inside the Guinness Storehouse.
Early Access, and the Two Hundred Thousand Books of the Long Room
Ahead of the crowds, with a guide, through the Turning Darkness into Light exhibition and into the Long Room, where 200,000 of the oldest books are kept.
Four Hours by Car, Exteriors Only, and the Deer in Phoenix Park
Four hours with a driver and no admissions: castle courtyard, two cathedrals, the Guinness gates, Kilmainham from outside, and the deer in Phoenix Park.
Forty Minutes on the Book, Fifty Round the Castle, No Gardens Until 2027
Forty minutes with the manuscript, fifty circling the castle, three hours in all, and the castle gardens stay closed until the end of 2026.
Ratings collected by Viator, Tripadvisor, Tiqets and Civitatis
The closure, and what it does to a booking
The campus closed to the public on Monday 15 June 2026, and the OPW's own wording is that it is closed to the public until January 2027. This is not a seasonal closure or building work. Ireland took the presidency of the Council of the European Union for the second half of 2026 and the state is using the castle for it, which means more than six months with no visitor access at the address that carries almost every Dublin review in this catalogue.
Two sources give two starting dates. The OPW says 15 June; Go City's own page for the same site says the season closed on 5 May. They agree on everything that matters, so treat June to December 2026 as gone and do not spend time on the first day. The reopening is given as January 2027 and no more precisely than that.
The price list from before the closure is still published, and it is the best guide to what a ticket will cost when the gates open again, without being a promise. Self-guided admission was 8 EUR for an adult, 6 for a senior or student, 4 for a child of 12 to 17, free under 12, and 20 for a family of two adults and three children. The guided tour was 12, 10, 6 and 30. Guided tours ran between 10:00 and 16:30, last admission was 17:15 against a 17:45 close, groups over ten had to book, and online booking for a guided tour opened only fifteen days before the date rather than months ahead.
One more thing is worth carrying past the reopening, because it is a permanent feature of a castle that is still a working seat of government. The ticket page warns that security, access to rooms and opening arrangements may be subject to change at short notice. No minimum notice is promised and we found no published policy on what happens to a booking that a state event cancels. Even in a normal year this is a monument that can withdraw part of what it sold you on the morning of the visit.
Security, access to rooms and opening arrangements may be subject to change at short notice.
| Dublin Castle | Malahide | Trim | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it is | Dame Street, in the city | North of Dublin, on the DART line | County Meath, outside the city |
| How you get there | Luas to Jervis or Stephen's Green, buses on Dame Street and George's Street | DART to Malahide station, then a short walk; Dublin Bus 32, 42 and 102 | Bus Eireann 111, hourly; parking 3 EUR for the day at Emmet Street |
| Adult price | 8 EUR self-guided, 12 guided | 17.50 EUR, one product only | 5 EUR for the keep, grounds free |
| Can you walk it alone? | Yes, the State Apartments | No, guided only | The grounds yes, the keep never |
| Timed slots | None published for self-guided | Yes, up to 8 a day | None; the guide announces the next tour |
| Booking ahead | Guided tours opened 15 days before | Recommended, and it does fill | Not possible; desk sale on the day |
| Which card covers it | OPW Heritage Card and Go City | Go City only | OPW Heritage Card only |
| What winter does | Closed to the public until January 2027 | Daily 9:30 to 17:30, shut 24 to 26 December | Weekends only, November to January |
Malahide, and the 45 minutes you have to book
The one castle here that sells you a time
An adult ticket for the Classic Castle Tour is 17.50 EUR, with 12.50 for a senior or a student, 10 for a child and 50 for a family of two adults and three children. That price is worth stating carefully, because the estate's marketing site no longer publishes any price at all: the only way to see a real figure is to open the booking engine and pick a product. Aggregators indexed by search engines still quote 16 EUR, which was true once and is not now.
The tour is guided and there is no alternative to it, every day of the year except 24, 25 and 26 December. It runs about 45 minutes, usually in English, with audio guides in Irish, Polish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese and Mandarin. The same ticket covers the botanic garden, the butterfly house and the fairy trail, and the estate asks you to allow a minimum of two hours for the whole visit and to arrive ten minutes before your slot.
There is one trap in the price list and it catches people who are trying to save money. The 10 EUR Fairy Trail and Butterfly House ticket does not include the castle. It buys the walled garden and the grounds, which is a perfectly good afternoon with children and no castle in it at all.
Trim, and the tower you cannot climb alone
Trim is the cheapest way into a castle anywhere in the Irish half of this catalogue. The grounds cost nothing at all. The keep costs 5 EUR for an adult, 4 for a senior or a group, 3 for a child or a student and 13 for a family, and you buy it at a desk at the top of the causeway, on the day, in person. There is no online booking of any kind.
You also cannot go up on your own. The OPW's own visitor guide puts it in short sentences: "You cannot go inside the Tower by yourself. You have to go with a guide." The guide talks for around ten minutes at the base of the stairs before the group goes in, and then it is narrow irregular steps, walkways suspended inside the shell of the tower, and the roof. No fixed timetable is published for any of this. The guide selling the tickets tells you when the next tour starts, which works fine in March and is the reason the OPW warns that access cannot be guaranteed in the summer months. A visitor can arrive on a July afternoon, find the day's tours full, and have no recourse, because there was never anything to book.
Winter closes the gate differently. From March to September the castle runs 10:00 to 17:00, in February and October 9:00 to 16:00, and from November to January it opens at weekends only. A Tuesday in December finds it shut even though the grounds are free the rest of the year. If you are driving, the town has paid parking at 1 EUR an hour from 9:00 to 18:00 Monday to Saturday, and a flat 3 EUR for the day at the Emmet Street car park, three minutes from the castle entrance. Bus Eireann's 111 runs Dublin to Athboy through Trim at an hourly frequency, though that figure is second-hand and we found no journey time or fare worth quoting. Take a picnic if you like, but the tables are outside: eating inside the castle walls is not allowed.
Here is the arithmetic that makes Trim worth thinking about. The three listings in this catalogue that go there cost 585, 645 and 699 EUR, run five to eight hours, and add the Hill of Tara or Newgrange to the day. The castle at the far end of that drive charges 5 EUR and cannot be booked. What those prices buy is the car, the guide and the Boyne valley around it, and it is fair to say so plainly rather than let the number imply the castle is expensive.
What the eight listings actually are
Four of the eight are the same walk with different stops attached, and all four include the Book of Kells. The largest is a 72 EUR guided walk taking in the Book of Kells, the castle and the Molly Malone statue, 150 minutes long, with 4,211 reviews at 4.7. Then 119 EUR for a 210 minute version that adds St Patrick's Cathedral, at 4.7 over 1,475 reviews. Then two at 79 EUR: a 180 minute Civitatis tour rated 4.4 over 379 reviews, and a 150 minute Tiqets product sold as early access, rated 4.6 over 48.
The best and the worst rated Dublin products with more than thirty reviews are both inside that group of four, and seven euro apart. That is the useful reading of the ratings here, and it is not that one operator is better than another. It is that four companies are selling nearly the same three hours, at 72 to 119 EUR, and the difference between 4.4 and 4.7 is more likely to be group size, the guide on the day and how much a title promised than the castle itself. A 4.4 across 379 reviews is a more informative number than a 5.0 across seven.
The other four listings are the private ones. Three are the Trim and Hill of Tara days at 585 to 699 EUR, holding 42 reviews between them, and the fourth is a 208 EUR private city tour of castles and cathedrals with eight. Three suppliers are represented across the eight, which makes Dublin the only Irish page here that is not dependent on a single source, and two of the eight declare reserved access, a far higher share than the 42 in 560 across this whole site.
An opinion, since the numbers support it: Dublin is the one place in Ireland where booking on the day is realistic, with a 225 minute median and immediate confirmation on a quarter of the listings. It is also, for the moment, the place where the headline monument is locked.
When to come, and which castle the month decides
The three castles month by month
This table follows opening hours rather than weather, because around Dublin the month decides which of the three you can get into rather than how pleasant it will be.
| Month | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dublin CastleClosed to the public from 15 June 2026 until January 2027 for Ireland's EU Council presidency. Outside that, it opens daily with last admission at 17:15 against a 17:45 close, and shuts 25 to 27 December and 1 January. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| Malahide Castle and GardensOpen daily 9:30 to 17:30 with guided castle tours all year round. The only stop is 24, 25 and 26 December, which is why December carries the mark and not the winter as a whole. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| Trim CastleThe keep tour runs 10:00 to 17:00 from March to September and 9:00 to 16:00 in February and October. From November to January the castle opens at weekends only, so a Tuesday in December finds the gate shut. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
Timetables from dublincastle.ie, from the OPW page for Trim Castle and from Malahide Castle and Gardens, all read on 2026-09-05.
The months work against you in opposite directions at the two castles that are open. At Trim the risk is summer, because there is no advance booking to protect you and the OPW says access to the keep tour cannot be guaranteed when the site is busy; the easier months there are March, April, May and September, when the keep tour still runs its long day and the site is not at its fullest. At Malahide the risk is the reverse. It is open all year, so the constraint is never the calendar, it is the eight slots in a day and a booking engine that on the afternoon of 5 September 2026 had nothing left until the next morning.
Dublin Castle is not a seasonal decision at all in 2026. It is a 2027 decision.
What people ask before booking a castle day in Dublin
Is Dublin Castle open right now?
No. The campus closed to the public on 15 June 2026 and the OPW says it stays closed until January 2027, because Ireland is running the presidency of the Council of the European Union from the site. Go City's page for the castle gives 5 May as the start of the closure, so the two sources differ on the date and agree on the fact.
What will it cost when it reopens?
The list published before the closure was 8 EUR for self-guided adult admission and 12 with a guide, 6 and 10 for seniors and students, 4 and 6 for children of 12 to 17, free under 12, and 20 or 30 for a family of two adults and three children. Treat that as the last known price rather than a promise: it has had six months to change.
Can I go up Trim's keep on my own?
No, in any circumstances. The OPW's visitor guide is explicit that you cannot go inside the tower by yourself and have to go with a guide, and there is no version of the ticket that changes that. The keep is 5 EUR, the grounds are free, and neither can be booked in advance.
How do I reach Malahide and Trim without a car?
Malahide is on the DART, a short walk from the station, and Dublin Bus routes 32, 42 and 102 serve it, the last of those directly from Dublin Airport. Trim is harder: Bus Eireann's 111 runs through it hourly on the Dublin to Athboy road, but that frequency is second-hand and no source we checked publishes the journey time or the fare.
Is there one card for all three?
No, and the split falls in the worst possible place. Trim is on the state card and Malahide is on the commercial one, so the two castles you can actually get into today sit on different products, and the only castle both cards agree on is the one that is shut. For a visitor with a weekend and two open castles, neither card earns its price.
How long does each of them take?
Malahide is the only one that answers: about 45 minutes for the guided tour, and a recommended minimum of two hours for the visit as a whole. Trim and Dublin Castle publish no estimate. From the catalogue side the median Dublin product runs 225 minutes and the shortest is 150.
Why is the median 163.50 EUR when the dearest listing is 699?
Because four of the eight are private tours and three of those four leave the city. The first quartile is 79 EUR and the third is 645, so the middle of the list falls in the gap between a group walk in the city and a car for the day in County Meath. Very little is sold in between.
Data verified on. Catalogue figures from the eight Dublin listings on this site. Closure, prices and hours from the OPW, dublincastle.ie and the Malahide booking engine. Bus 111 is second-hand.