📣Please Note📣
The playground will be closed for the week 21st September to the 28th for essential work.
Apologies for any inconvenience caused
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Please note that no third-party organisations are authorised to sell tickets to Kilkenny Castle. Tickets bought from other sites, including ticketing resale platforms, will not be valid and such ticket-holders will be refused entry. Furthermore, we are aware that there are fraudulent websites purporting to be www.kilkennycastle.ie. These websites and domain names look similar, but have no connection whatsoever to the Office of Public Works or Kilkenny Castle. We urge extra vigilance, as any tickets purchased from fraudulent sites cannot be honoured.
This is the only legitimate website to purchase tickets for Kilkenny Castle
BOOK TICKETS HERE
Welcome to Kilkenny Castle and Parklands
Few buildings in Ireland can boast a longer history of continuous occupation than Kilkenny Castle.
Founded soon after the Norman conquest of Ireland, the Castle has been rebuilt, extended and adapted to suit changing circumstances and uses over a period of 800 years.
Today, Kilkenny Castle is open to visitors all year round and is largely a Victorian remodelling of the thirteenth century defensive Castle.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors come to see this grand country house and walk through its fifty acres of rolling parkland with mature trees and an abundance of wildlife.
Other features include a formal terraced rose garden, woodlands and a man-made lake, which were added in the nineteenth century.
There is also a tearoom, playground and several orienteering trails for visitors to enjoy.
Please note that Free admission on the first Wednesday of each month is no longer applicable at Kilkenny Castle. Click here to access the full list of participating sites.
Please Note CCTV system is in operation at Kilkenny Castle and Park. Images are recorded for the purposes of security and personal safety.
Click here to read the OPW Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Systems Privacy Statement
Click here to read the OPW Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Systems Data Protection Policy
Book your tickets
Plan your visit
Our exhibitions
The Castle Blog
Barbara Villiers and the Butler Family Feud
Barbara Villiers and the Butler Family Feud. Barbara Villiers (Palmer), 1st Duchess of Cleveland and Countess of Castlemaine was born in November 1640. She became over the course of her career at court one of the principal mistresses to King Charles II of England....
The Duke Of Ormond – TY Project
Young James Butler was born on the 19th of October 1610, in England, with his parents being Thomas and Elizabeth Butler. His father drowned off Skerries in 1619, when James was just nine years old, which made him the viscount Thurles. His mother took him back to...
Some Connections between Norman families and the origins of the Butler family.
With the Ormonde-Butler family, there is reliable documented evidence from the 12th Century up to the present day. It is remarkable to have such an extant record of one single family, albeit with omissions about the careers and lives of some of the family. One famous...