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
Same price online on OPW's Admit One site (no booking fee shown; walk-in places kept at the door) and at reception; the park and tearooms need no ticket. Online the site sells an 'English Heritage Card' ticket at €0.00, one per named member, card shown on arrival. Children under 12 free but need a ticket; visitors with disabilities and their carers free. Free for English Heritage members showing a valid card, from the first year of membership (every OPW site; the named members on the card). Heritage Card holders free.
OPW's Student/Child rate; the booking site gives the child band as 12 to 17 and asks students aged 18 and over for identification. Under-12s free. Free for English Heritage members showing a valid card, from the first year of membership (every OPW site; the named members on the card). Heritage Card holders free.
OPW's senior and group rate; the senior age of 60 and over comes from the booking site. Free for English Heritage members showing a valid card, from the first year of membership (every OPW site; the named members on the card). Heritage Card holders free.
OPW's family ticket as the booking site defines it. Free for English Heritage members showing a valid card, from the first year of membership (every OPW site; the named members on the card). Heritage Card holders free.
The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.
OPW lists a car park, coach parking and bicycle parking at Doneraile but publishes no charge; the main visitor car park lies inside the park by the playground and public toilets about 370 m north of the house, a five-minute walk, with an overflow car park further on. The Triumphal Arch and main gates to the park close at 5pm, the playground and toilets at 4.30pm and the Fishpond Lane gate at 4.45pm, so drivers should be out before then. OPW's directions: 11 km north-east of Mallow, about 6 km on the N20 towards Limerick, right on the R581 for about 8 km, then the R522.
Driving pin: the park's main visitor car park, the only located car park, where visitors park for the house and the park; OPW's own pin is on the house behind Main Street, where drivers cannot enter.
Doneraile Court is the St Leger family's Georgian house in north Cork, built around 1645 on the site of a ruined castle and refurbished in the mid-eighteenth century into an outstanding example of Georgian architecture. Thirteen generations of St Legers lived here over three centuries, among them Elizabeth St Leger, who became the first woman Freemason in the world in 1712, and the family gave its name to the St Leger Stakes; OPW calls it North Cork's real-life Downton Abbey. The house is seen on a guided tour of about fifty minutes, on the hour, and reviewers praise guides who know the house, its paintings and gardens thoroughly. Around it, Doneraile Park is free to everyone: 160 hectares of parkland in the naturalistic style of Capability Brown, with water features, a parterre walled garden, gardeners' cottages, graded walks, a playground, picnic spots and tearooms, where red, fallow and sika deer and Kerry cattle graze and dogs may walk on a lead.
Tours of Doneraile Court available on the hour from 10:00 Sarah’s Tearooms are open 5 days a week as follows: Thursday 10:00 – 15:00 Friday 10:00 – 16:00 Saturday 10:00 – 16:00 Sunday 10:00 - 16:00 Monday 10:00 – 15:00 Closed Tuesday and Wednesday
Doneraile Court opens 20 March to 4 November 2026, daily 10am to 5pm (10am to 6pm in July and August), with guided tours on the hour from 10am, the last an hour before closing, about 50 minutes and up to 25 people; book on OPW's Admit One site or take one of the walk-in places at the door. The park is free all year: daily 8am to 8pm from 29 March, 8am to 5pm in winter, with the gates closing from 4.30pm. Sarah's Tearooms in the courtyard open Thursday to Monday, 10am to 3pm on Mondays and Thursdays and to 4pm Friday to Sunday, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Free house admission for everyone on the first Wednesday of each month in season.
The house has a lift and is listed as wheelchair accessible; public toilets by the playground; a cafe, picnic area and playground in the park, with paths that suit buggies and children's bikes. Children under 18 must be with an adult on the tour; card payments accepted.
Dogs: Pet dogs on a lead are welcome in the free park around the house; whether a dog may join the house tour or enter the tearooms is not stated. Dogs on a lead throughout Doneraile Park, free, during park hours; deer and Kerry cattle live on the estate.
Photo: Doneraile Court seen across the parkland of Doneraile Park, with the River Awbeg and paths winding up to the house among spring trees. Owen O'Sullivan, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Doneraile_Court_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3784825.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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Free park open daily 8am to 8pm from 29 March and 8am to 5pm in winter, gates closing from 4.30pm; from the park car park by the playground; graded paths around the parkland, water features and walled garden, some suitable for buggies. Dogs: Dogs on a lead (OPW restriction); deer and Kerry cattle on the estate.
