Free for everyone, including OPW's outdoor guided tours and IMMA's galleries and formal gardens; IMMA occasionally charges for a special exhibition. No membership card is needed.
IMMA's pay car park behind the hospital, entered by the East Gate on Military Road, €3 for up to three hours; eight minutes' walk from Heuston Station. Not a Trust car park, so membership does not cover it.
The on-site car park is the Irish Museum of Modern Art's, entered from the East Gate on Military Road: €3 for up to three hours, €5 for up to four, €10 for up to six and €15 beyond, by coin or card at the machines (OPW's Irish page says €2 an hour after the first three). Blue badge spaces near the main entrance; coach and bicycle parking. Drivers arriving from the west on the N4 cannot turn right into Military Road: go via Kilmainham Road or loop back along the quays and up Kilmainham Lane. Heuston Station (rail and the Luas red line) is eight minutes' walk via Military Road; buses C1 to C4 serve Heuston and 13, G1 and G2 James's Street. The pedestrian path from the East Gate is steep.
Driving pin: the hospital's main door on the courtyard; the car park itself is the pin already stored for Kilmainham Gaol, 185 m away, so the two markers are kept apart.
The Royal Hospital Kilmainham stands on the site of a seventh-century Christian settlement, replaced in Norman times by a monastery of the Knights Hospitallers. Building began in 1680 and the hospital was founded in 1684 by James Butler, Duke of Ormonde, as a home for retired soldiers inspired by Les Invalides in Paris, with a formal facade and a large elegant courtyard; it is the oldest classical building in Ireland. Over 247 years thousands of army pensioners lived out their days within its walls, until the last moved to Chelsea in 1927. Restored by the State in 1984, it has housed the Irish Museum of Modern Art since 1991, whose galleries are free. OPW guides give free outdoor tours of the building and its 48 acres of formal gardens, meadows and burial grounds, including Bully's Acre, from March to November. Entry is free, the IMMA car park is paid, and dogs may walk the grounds on a lead away from the formal garden and graveyards.
The Great Hall and Chapel are currently closed for the remainder of 2026 to accommodate the EU Presidency. We apologise for any inconvenience. Outdoor guided tours are available daily.
Free entry
OPW guides are on site from 12 March to November 2026, with free outdoor guided tours daily at 11:00, 13:00 and 15:00; the Great Hall and Chapel are closed for the rest of 2026 for the EU Presidency. OPW lists its Old Man's House history exhibition as open Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 17:00 and Sunday 11:00 to 17:00, but IMMA's grounds page says it is closed until further notice, so check before you go. Off season, November to March, the site is closed on Mondays except bank holidays, open Tuesday and Thursday to Saturday 10:00 to 17:00, Wednesday 11:30 to 17:00 and Sunday 12:00 to 17:00. The gates close at 18:30 and the western entrance does not open until 12:00 on Sundays.
IMMA's free galleries open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 10:00 to 17:30, Wednesday 11:30 to 17:30 and Sunday 12:00 to 17:30, closed Mondays, with free gallery tours at 16:00; the formal gardens keep museum hours. Cafes in the courtyard and the basement vaults, a shop, adapted toilets and baby changing; fully wheelchair accessible with distances between buildings and a cobbled courtyard.
Dogs: Pet dogs are allowed on a lead in the grounds and meadows but not in the formal walled gardens, Bully's Acre or the Officers' Graveyard, nor in the cafes; the rule inside IMMA's buildings is not published.
Photo: The Royal Hospital Kilmainham's cobbled courtyard and north range with its clock tower and spire. William Murphy, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RHKilmainhan.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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Self-guided trails round the Royal Hospital's grounds: IMMA's Artwork Trail of collection pieces displayed outdoors, and tree and plant maps of the gardens and meadows; free, from the grounds until the gates close at 18:30; the formal gardens keep IMMA's museum hours (closed Mondays).
