Free entry for English Heritage members
This place is cared for by the Office of Public Works, which runs Ireland's national heritage sites as Heritage Ireland. English Heritage members are entitled to free entry to all OPW sites from the first year of membership. Show your current membership card at admissions.
More information
No charge for anyone.
The castle has no visitor parking: tours start at Adare Heritage Centre on Main Street, whose free car park is at the rear of the centre, and a shuttle bus takes visitors to the castle by the N21 bridge over the Maigue. Bus services link Adare with Limerick; Limerick city is about 20 minutes by car.
Driving pin: the heritage centre's car park, 62 m from OPW's pin on the centre and about 760 m south-west of the castle.
On the banks of the River Maigue at Adare, this Norman castle was placed to control traffic to and from the Shannon Estuary. Its core is a formidable square keep inside a walled ward ringed by a moat, raised on an earlier ringwork; beside the river stand the great hall, with early 13th-century windows, and a kitchen and bakery. The castle was begun about 1200 by the knight Geoffrey de Marisco and by 1228 belonged to the FitzGeralds, earls of Kildare, who held it for three centuries. The earls of Desmond took it after 1536 and made it a key bastion; it fell to the English after a bloody siege in the Second Desmond Rebellion, and Cromwellian forces laid it waste in 1657. Visits are by guided tour only, about 45 minutes, with a minibus from Adare Heritage Centre on Main Street, daily from June to September. Book at the centre in summer; out of season the castle is well seen from the N21 bridge.
Adare Castle is visited only by guided tour, which leaves Adare Heritage Centre on Main Street by shuttle bus daily from 1 June to 30 September at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 15:30; OPW asks visitors to phone or email the centre in advance, and booking is recommended in summer and at weekends. Group tours out of season by request. Out of season the castle is seen from outside only, best from the N21 bridge over the River Maigue. Recheck 1 May 2027 for the 2027 season.
The heritage centre, open daily 09:00 to 17:00 all year, has a cafe, shop, toilets and accessible toilets and step-free access; the castle tour involves uneven ground and is not suited to visitors with limited mobility.
Dogs: OPW lists dogs on lead as the restriction for Adare Castle; whether the heritage centre takes pet dogs on the shuttle tour is not confirmed.
Photo: Adare Castle's curtain wall, keep and great hall seen across the River Maigue, reflected in the water. Jerzy Strzelecki, CC BY 3.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desmond_castle_(js).jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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Dog access not confirmed
Free self-guided walk round Adare's historic buildings on village streets; the council notes that access to Desmond Castle is by guided tour only from the heritage centre.
