Free for everyone, including the exhibition, the walled garden and the guided tours of Ashtown Castle (free tickets from the reception desk, subject to availability). No membership card is needed. The Phoenix Park Café is a private business.
The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.
OPW lists a car park and coach parking and its park website says the Visitor Centre car park opens at 07:30 and, like all the park's car parks, closes one hour before dark; no tariff or free statement is published. Designated accessible spaces and bicycle parking. The centre is 4 km from the city centre, signposted from the Phoenix Monument on Chesterfield Avenue, nearest the Ashtown and Castleknock gates. Dublin Bus 99 terminates inside the centre's grounds, running every 30 minutes from 09:00 to 18:00 from Parkgate Street by Heuston Station and the Luas red line.
Driving pin: the Visitor Centre car park; OPW's own pin is on the castle, 156 m away.
Ashtown Castle is a tower house that probably dates from the seventeenth century but may be as early as the fifteenth. For years it was hidden within the walls of a Georgian mansion, and only when that house was demolished was the castle rediscovered and restored. It stands beside OPW's visitor centre in Ashtown Demesne, signposted from the Phoenix Monument, where a lively self-guiding exhibition tells the story of the park from 3500 BC to the present day, with an audio-visual show, a nature section upstairs and changing art exhibitions. Free guided tours of the castle leave the reception desk on weekdays, climbing narrow stairs past musket loops to the top-floor bedroom under its exposed roof. Outside are the restored Victorian walled kitchen garden, woodland walks, picnic areas, a universal-access playground and the Phoenix Park Café. It is the best starting point for exploring the park, where bus 99 terminates and the Saturday tickets for Áras an Uachtaráin are issued. Dogs are welcome on a lead outside.
Open throughout the year, daily 09:30 to 18:00 with last admission at 17:00 (the park website says 45 minutes before closing), closed 25, 26, 30 and 31 December; the park website adds that the centre closes every Monday and Tuesday from January to mid April. Free castle tours run Monday to Friday at 10:30, 12:00, 13:30, 15:00 and 16:00, subject to availability; ring 01 677 0095 to confirm. The walled garden opens daily 10:00 to 16:00. The visitor centre may close at short notice. Allow an hour.
The Biodiversity Centre at Knockmaroon, 2 km away by Knockmaroon Gate, is a separate seasonal site, open Wednesday to Sunday from April and closed for the winter. Tickets for the free Saturday tours of Áras an Uachtaráin are issued here from 09:30 on the day. Lift to the first floor, universal-access toilets, buggy storage, a free water refill station; the castle has narrow stairs and no lift. Café open 09:30 to 16:00 midweek in October. The playground (ages 4 to 12) opens 09:30 until an hour before sunset.
Dogs: Pet dogs on a lead around the visitor centre complex and demesne; not in the walled garden, the playground, the café or the toilets; the rule inside the exhibition and the castle is not published. The surrounding Phoenix Park, free at all hours: dogs under control, on a lead near the deer, on cycle lanes and near roads. In the surrounding park, signed restrictions near the deer at the rut (mid October to early November) and fawning (June and July).
Photo: Ashtown Castle, a tall stone tower house with a round-headed wooden door, behind low box hedges beside the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre. Cathalpeelo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dublin_-_Ashtown_Castle_-_20210918150557.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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OPW's signed route from the Visitor Centre car park around the Áras an Uachtaráin demesne by Back Road and Spa Road; free at any hour; the car park closes an hour before dark. Woodland walks in Ashtown Demesne and three orienteering routes with maps from the centre.
