Malahide Castle & Gardens
Malahide Castle & Gardens
Malahide Castle & Gardens
4.4
9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Monday
9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Tuesday
9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Wednesday
9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Thursday
9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Friday
9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Saturday
9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Sunday
9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
About
Malahide Castle & Gardens is a beautiful & historic medievel castle, with a facinating story dating back to the 12th Century. Located on the beautiful north coast of Dublin City Malahide Castle was once owned by the Talbot Family for nearly 800 years and is one of the longest owned castles by one family in the country. Set on 250 acres of stunning parkland, Malahide Castle is also home to one of Ireland’s four botanical walled gardens with 5000 species of plants inculding a wonderful collection from many Southern Hemisphere countries. Guided tours of the castle take place daily from 9.30am all year round. Our friendly and informative guides bring to life the story of the Talbot family during the 45 minute tour through the main reception rooms & bedrooms. The modern & bright visitor centre is home to the garden exhibition area and gives access to the Talbot Botanical Walled Garden. Avoca Cafe & retail is located in the visitor centre and is a treasure trove of wonderful gifts.
Duration: More than 3 hours
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4.4
2,707 reviews
Excellent
1,530
Very good
872
Average
214
Poor
46
Terrible
45
These reviews have been automatically translated from their original language.
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Lorraine G
2 contributions
Apr 2024 • Family
We had arrived at Dublin Airport earlier than we had expected so looked for somewhere to visit and the Malahide Castle and Gardens were only 10 minutes away.
We thought it would be a good way to spend an hour or so and imagined that we would be wandering around some castle ruins - we were so wrong.
We had a lovely coffee and some cake before we set off to explore. The restaurant area offered a full range of hot meals and looking at the plates of the guests, they do not stint on portion sizes so if you are going to eat here, bring your extra big tummies :) oh and the slices of delicious cakes were enormous too!
We were not expecting a tour of the Castle! We just managed to tag onto the 3.30pm tour and not only was our guide a font of all knowledge, but she had the most wonderful sense of humour and had us fully engaged the moment we arrived with her animated delivery of the Castle's history, including the ghosts! As we had missed the first few minutes, she also kindly took the time to fill us in on what we had missed.
We then wandered off to the butterfly house - oh my goodness, they were beautiful and who knew some of them were absolutely huge!
Sad to say we did not have time to look at the botanical gardens or follow the fairy trail, but we did manage to visit the walled garden and pond area which were beautiful.
All staff were warm and welcoming and without the lovely lady in reception, we would never have found our way around.
We would definitely recommend a visit to Malahide Castle and Gardens to children and people of all ages and the next time we fly into or out of Dublin, we will be back.
We thought it would be a good way to spend an hour or so and imagined that we would be wandering around some castle ruins - we were so wrong.
We had a lovely coffee and some cake before we set off to explore. The restaurant area offered a full range of hot meals and looking at the plates of the guests, they do not stint on portion sizes so if you are going to eat here, bring your extra big tummies :) oh and the slices of delicious cakes were enormous too!
We were not expecting a tour of the Castle! We just managed to tag onto the 3.30pm tour and not only was our guide a font of all knowledge, but she had the most wonderful sense of humour and had us fully engaged the moment we arrived with her animated delivery of the Castle's history, including the ghosts! As we had missed the first few minutes, she also kindly took the time to fill us in on what we had missed.
We then wandered off to the butterfly house - oh my goodness, they were beautiful and who knew some of them were absolutely huge!
Sad to say we did not have time to look at the botanical gardens or follow the fairy trail, but we did manage to visit the walled garden and pond area which were beautiful.
All staff were warm and welcoming and without the lovely lady in reception, we would never have found our way around.
We would definitely recommend a visit to Malahide Castle and Gardens to children and people of all ages and the next time we fly into or out of Dublin, we will be back.
Written 16 April 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
boo98
Leduc, Canada394 contributions
Jun 2024 • Couples
take the train Connelly station, it's about 1/2 an hour and it's well worth it, only a 5-10 min walk from the train station. So well maintained and lots of history. Even have their own paint color Malahide orange. The tour guide was terrific. The grounds are very pretty.
Written 29 June 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Jovana
11 contributions
Feb 2025 • Couples
Our visit to Malahide Castle was fascinating. Mark, our guide, brought the history of the castle and its past residents to life with his passion and knowledge. You can tell he genuinely loves what he does, which made the tour even more enjoyable. He even went out of his way to take us back to certain rooms for pictures after the tour.
The entire experience was a 10/10, and I highly recommend visiting. Definitely worth it!
The entire experience was a 10/10, and I highly recommend visiting. Definitely worth it!
Written 10 February 2025
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Barbara B
Rome, Italy223 contributions
Nov 2024 • Couples
It's a well-kept castle. Not great. Cute gardens (walled garden and Butterfly house) with 🐿️ and peacocks. Autumn was romantic. Beautiful ruined church. The guided tour lasts about an hour. The lady was prepared and answered extra questions, although the narrative too flat in tone and too fast, despite attempts at nice sentences (not everyone knows English should consider it for example my husband is not a native speaker!!) anyway cute story of the Talbot family and cozy castle decor. Christmas trees already in mid-November! Beautiful park in front although it does not represent a typical French or English garden.
Automatically translated
Written 18 November 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
JZ
24 contributions
Jun 2024 • Family
Our guide did a great job explaining the history and changes that were made to this castle and the area of Malahide. The furnishings were just amazing. The art work was owed by another art history society so they could be different from visit to visit.
Written 11 July 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Malene J
Dublin, Ireland1 contribution
May 2024 • Business
Living in Dublin twenty years I finally visited Malahide Castle last week and went for a guided tour of the castle and loved it!
Caroline, who guided the tour I was on, had the perfect balance of history, stories and tounge in cheek fabels.
Tour is about an hour long and afterwards I spent another hour and a half in the park and gardens before going back to the city center on the train(25 min and they run every 30 minutes).
Fab 1/2 day trip for anyone coming to Dublin. A hidden gem🤫 ☘️
Caroline, who guided the tour I was on, had the perfect balance of history, stories and tounge in cheek fabels.
Tour is about an hour long and afterwards I spent another hour and a half in the park and gardens before going back to the city center on the train(25 min and they run every 30 minutes).
Fab 1/2 day trip for anyone coming to Dublin. A hidden gem🤫 ☘️
Written 20 May 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Daniele_Gorizia
Savogna d'Isonzo, Italy1,055 contributions
Aug 2023 • Family
You can get there comfortably from the center of Dublin with the Dart (practically a surface metro) in half an hour. The transport ticket is included in the Leap Card (very useful).
The castle with its huge park is beautiful.
The access road is just outside the station, next to cricket pitches (be careful it is not well signposted).
The castle can only be visited on tour, by booking at the Visitor Centre. There is also a free audio guide in Italian.
The entrance ticket also includes a visit to the butterfly house and an area used as a botanical garden.
I confirm ticket prices are a little expensive for our Italian standards.
The castle with its huge park is beautiful.
The access road is just outside the station, next to cricket pitches (be careful it is not well signposted).
The castle can only be visited on tour, by booking at the Visitor Centre. There is also a free audio guide in Italian.
The entrance ticket also includes a visit to the butterfly house and an area used as a botanical garden.
I confirm ticket prices are a little expensive for our Italian standards.
Written 2 April 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
AlbertSalichs
Manresa, Spain24,309 contributions
Oct 2023 • Friends
Malahide Castle&Gardens are located in the homonymous town, not so far from Dublin, the main city in Ireland. It was built in the 12th Century, but there are some towers built in the 18th Century. Nowadays, the castle belongs to County Dublin and it is possible to visit. We came here in the evening and we could only visit the gardens, which are very nice. They are very big and from here you can see the main castle, walk around the gardens or only relax. A very beautiful place, where we began our trip to Ireland.
Written 7 July 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Maria R
3 contributions
Mar 2024 • Family
We spent 4 days in Dublin and both parents and children agreed that the visit to Malahide Castle and Gardens was the best of all.
We booked tickets online and took the DART to Malahide. From there it's a nice 10-15 min walk from the train station to the castle. The castle visit was quite informative, our guide was great and the kids loved the stories about the ghosts. The gardens are lovely and the best part was, by far, the fairy trail. We spent over an hour there! We had lunch there at Avoca, highly recommended. Lovely store as well! And the playground: if you have kids you not leave without a stop there!
We booked tickets online and took the DART to Malahide. From there it's a nice 10-15 min walk from the train station to the castle. The castle visit was quite informative, our guide was great and the kids loved the stories about the ghosts. The gardens are lovely and the best part was, by far, the fairy trail. We spent over an hour there! We had lunch there at Avoca, highly recommended. Lovely store as well! And the playground: if you have kids you not leave without a stop there!
Written 21 March 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
PAdixie
Saskatoon, Canada127 contributions
May 2024 • Friends
The castle is very interesting but similar in many ways to all the old castles in the area. The grounds and gardens are stunning and provides a lovely walk to explore. I would recommend it to anyone in the area I’m sure you wouldn’t be disappointed.
Written 2 June 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
At Christmas how much are the extras such as the photos with Santa?
Written 3 October 2019
Thanks but no it only shows the ticket cost not the added extras it mentions the photo opportunities but not how much extra these things will be
Written 4 October 2019
alve,
è possibile in un pomeriggio vedere malahide (castello e borgo) + Howth (sentiero verde più breve)? Per fare connolly station - malahide-howth-Connelly è necessario per forza il giornaliero o basta un day/return?
Written 1 October 2019
Mi sembra un po' troppo in un pomeriggio. Tieni conto che nel castello di Malahide si entra solo con la guida è il tour dura un oretta. Inoltre il parco intorno al castello merita una visita di un psio di ore per i suoi giardini e la casa delle farfalle. Il paesino lo si può visitare con il trenino per turisti che parte dal castello. Consiglio Biglietto Andata e ritorno da Connelly
Written 1 October 2019
Do you have to pre book tickets or can you just show up?
Written 21 June 2019
Hi there, you can book tickets online at our website or you can buy them onsite at our Admissions Desk. Thank you!
Written 9 October 2023
Hello, would anybody know if you can take a bus from the Airport to Malahide castle?
or roughly how much a cab would be from Airport hotel to the castle :)
Thanks in advance :)
Written 18 June 2019
Hi there! You can take 102 bus from the Airport. Thanks!
Written 9 October 2023
Going to this Saturday concert and I’d need to drive . Issue is car parking. Any advice? Thanks
Written 5 June 2019
I’m sure they have parking arranged for concerts. It’s basically a compound with a large parking lot out front, but I doubt this is where they have you park. We took the train to Malahide and were able to just walk out, turn right and 10 min we were at the castle. I think that’s the best way to go. It was a DART train from Dublin all the way to Malahide. It is a direct route. Very easy and very inexpensive.
Written 5 June 2019
Hi there, we do have a free WiFi. Thanks!
Written 9 October 2023
Meeting up with friends for a concert at Malahide, but can not find any info on places to meet up because we are coming from all over the city. Can someone suggest a good place to meet up before hand on the grounds of castle near an entrance. Thank you in advance.
Written 30 May 2019
Yes, there is open WiFi available in the visitors center .
Written 4 June 2019
nmcnicholl
Banbridge, United Kingdom
can a small coach 29 seater drop off/ pick up after visit outside the Avoca centre
Written 9 April 2019
I believe so. We were on a two tier tour bus that parked right outside the visitor/gift center
Written 10 April 2019
nmcnicholl
Banbridge, United Kingdom
I want to know if a coach bringing a group of senior citizens to the Castle can park outside Avoca cente just for a drop off and when visit is complete to pick up same spot. a.s.a.p.
Written 9 April 2019
Hi, yes you can. We have designated Bus/Coach parking. Thank you
Written 9 October 2023
Can you see the outside of castle without purchasing a ticket?
Written 17 June 2018
Hi, yes you can! You can walk around the front of the Castle for free
Written 9 October 2023
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