Tours

Join One of Our Experienced Guides for a Fascinating Tour!

We are delighted to announce that Guided Tours are now running on a daily basis

Tickets can be purchased on the day of your visit from our Ticket Desk

While there is current limited availability, we invite you to enjoy the State Apartments with our excellent audio guide:

State Apartments Audio Guide

I recommend taking the guided tour, you will thoroughly enjoy the stories behind every part of the castle, old or new.

I have just attended a tour on Dublin Castle and 1916. It was excellent! The guide took us to places associated with the Rising and gave eye witness accounts of those who were there at the time. Just wonderful.

I had the pleasure of taking a guided tour with a wonderfully well spoken and knowledgeable guide. I learned so much.

Daily Guided Tours

Join one of our experienced guides for a fascinating tour that takes you from the excavation site of Viking and medieval Dublin to the Gothic Chapel Royal and finally to the splendour of the former viceregal State Apartments. You can also download our free self-guiding app here.

We offer free tours for primary and secondary schools (advance booking essential). Children’s tours and workshops are available from our Education department.

The State Apartments

The State Apartments dominate the south range of the Great Courtyard. They were built as the residential and public quarters of the viceregal court and were the seat of the executive and focus of fashionable and extravagant social life. Today the Apartments are the venue for Ireland’s Presidencies of the European Union, Presidential inaugurations and prestigious functions.

The Viking Excavation

The Viking Excavation in the Medieval Undercroft is sited at lower ground floor level in the Lower Castle Yard, opposite the Chapel Royal. The city walls join the Castle at this point. The double archway and postern gate are still visible. Also on view here is the Viking defence bank, within the butt of the Norman Powder Tower which originally was five storeys high.

The Chapel Royal

The Chapel Royal is a gothic revival building designed by Francis Johnston. It is famous for its vaulting, its particularly fine plaster decoration and carved oaks and galleries. Of particular interest are the coats of arms of the Justiciars, Lord Deputies and Lord Lieutenants from the first, Hugh de Lacy (1172) to the last, FitzAlan (1922), which, remarkably, occupies the last available space.