Open all year, daily; the Friends of Dundonald Castle give 11am to 4pm in their FAQ and on the booking page, and 10am to 4pm in a site banner (Google also shows 10am to 4pm). Castle tours at about 10am, 11am, 12pm, 1.30pm and 2.30pm; the castle closes 1pm to 1.30pm for the volunteer guides' lunch, and briefly for wedding ceremonies. On Thursdays the visitor centre museum is restricted for community groups while the castle opens as usual. Tickets are valid for re-entry on the day; pre-booking is recommended but not essential. No closed dates published.
From the car park a steep tarmac path with an anti-slip surface climbs 120 m, then 30 m of level gravel leads to the castle. The visitor centre is step-free with two accessible toilets, a small cafe seating about twenty with outdoor seats, a gift shop of local makers and a museum. Much of the castle can be seen from the level ground floor; the first floor is up 15 steep stone steps with no handrail and the second floor up a 38-step metal spiral stair with a handrail; electric lights in the stairs, lower hall and prison. Picnics are welcome on the hill (no tables). The grounds are always open to the public; a ticket is needed for the castle. Dogs on leads are welcome inside the castle and visitor centre.
Dogs: The Friends, who run the site, welcome dogs on a lead inside the castle and the visitor centre. HES's facilities tag is narrower ('Dogs welcome in outdoor areas'); the operator's specific statement is followed.
Photo: Dundonald Castle's great tower house rising from the grass of Castle Hill under a cloudy sky, with a saltire flying. PaulT (Gunther Tschuch), CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ayrshire_Dundonald_Castle_1.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
