Broughty Castle

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry to the museum and grounds for everyone; donations welcome (Leisure and Culture Dundee). No membership card is needed.

ParkingFree parkingFree for all visitors

No charge for anyone.

Parking details

Leisure and Culture Dundee, which runs the castle museum, says free unreserved parking is available at the front of the castle on Castle Approach, the only road to it; Historic Scotland names no car park. The Broughty Ferry beach car park lies about 220 m east beyond Castle Green, and the town's Brook Street, Queen Street and Fort Street car parks are about half a kilometre away.

Driving pin: the parking bays along Castle Approach in front of the castle, 116 m north of Historic Scotland's own pin. The castle is on the seafront beside Broughty Ferry harbour, about 4.5 miles east of Dundee city centre and an eight-minute walk from Broughty Ferry railway station; several bus routes stop in the town.

About

Broughty Castle guards the mouth of the Tay beside Broughty Ferry harbour, a tower house built in 1490 by the 2nd Lord Gray under a charter from James IV after five English ships were captured off the point. It changed hands often: Sir Andrew Dudley took it without a shot after the Battle of Pinkie in 1547, and in 1651 the royalist garrison fled before General Monck, leaving four cannons, one barrel of gunpowder and nineteen barrels of salmon. The War Department bought the ruin in the 1850s and rebuilt it as an artillery fort against a feared French invasion, and it defended the Tay until the end of the Second World War. Leisure and Culture Dundee now runs a free museum inside, with Broughty Ferry's history, the Orchar Collection of Victorian Scottish paintings, local wildlife and an observation deck where reviewers watch for dolphins. Visitors praise the friendly staff, the river views and the beach and playground next door; dogs are not allowed in the castle or grounds.

Check today’s timesSee all times

Broughty CastleClosed today (Tuesday); museum closed for the winter from 26 October until April 2027

Opening times may change at short notice.

Historic Scotland publishes no hours and defers to Leisure and Culture Dundee, which opens the castle as Broughty Castle Museum from April to 25 October: Wednesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm and Sunday 12.30pm to 4pm, closed Mondays and Tuesdays, last entry 15 minutes before closing; closed from 26 October to March. On 20 October 2026 the museum's page already carried a 'currently closed for the Winter' notice beside the table running to 25 October, so check before a late-October visit. The exterior, the harbour wall and Castle Green are public and can be seen at any time.

Inside are the Broughty Life gallery of local history, the Orchar Collection of Victorian Scottish paintings, galleries on the area's geology and wildlife and on the castle's role in coastal defence, a shop and visitor toilets on the second floor, and the observation deck at the top (binoculars from reception for a small deposit). The operator warns that access for visitors with mobility concerns is highly restricted by the fortified building. Some events are ticketed separately.

Photo: Broughty Castle's tower house and artillery battery on the shore of the Tay, seen across Broughty Ferry harbour at low tide. Scott Cormie, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Broughty_Castle_-_geograph.org.uk_-_5327085.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.