Free for everyone in season, including the exhibitions and guided tours; no booking needed. No membership card is needed.
Arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport.
OPW names no car park: the castle is at the east end of Davitt's Quay and Castle Street, a short walk from the town centre, and OPW's guide notes several car parks around Dungarvan that can be busy in summer. Waterford City and County Council runs pay and display parking in the town; a council car park on Davitt's Quay is beside the castle and Strandside car park is across the Colligan in Abbeyside. Tariffs are not stored.
Driving pin: OPW's own pin at the castle's main gate.
Beside the harbour in Dungarvan, this castle was built about 1209, early in the Anglo-Norman settlement, to guard the entrance to the harbour where the River Colligan meets the sea. Its earliest part, a polygonal shell keep about 800 years old, is a rare type of building in Ireland, viewed from the courtyard rather than entered. Around it run a curtain wall, a corner tower and a gate tower. Inside the walls stands a two-storey military barracks of the early 18th century, used by the British Army and the Royal Irish Constabulary until 1922; it was burned by the Anti-Treaty IRA in the Civil War and later refurbished as the local Garda station. Today the barracks and grounds hold an exhibition on the castle's history, a short audio-visual show and displays on the RIC and the soldiers' quarters, and a new wooden spiral stair climbs the tower. Admission is free, with no booking needed, and there is pay parking on the quay beside the castle.
Site Closed Site is now closed for the 2026 season. We look forward to welcoming visitors again in 2027.
Closed for the winter.
Open seasonally: in 2026 daily 10:00 to 18:00 from 22 April to 30 September, last admission 17:15; OPW says the site is closed for the 2026 season and will welcome visitors again in 2027, with no 2027 dates published yet (2025 ran 24 April to 1 October).
Enter by the main gate; guides in the barracks hand out a map. The exhibition and a short audio-visual show are in the barracks, with a lift and stairs to the first floor, and another exhibition is in the south-west corner tower; the shell keep is seen from the courtyard but not entered. Gravel courtyard with steps and uneven surfaces. Toilets, an accessible toilet and baby changing. Children must be accompanied by an adult; no cycling in the grounds.
Photo: The gatehouse of Dungarvan Castle with its twin round towers, the curtain wall and a corner tower, the barracks seen through the gate. A.-K. D., CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dungarvan_Castle_-_2025-09-15.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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