Free for everyone; an open-air monument with no staff, tickets or booking. No membership card is needed.
The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.
OPW names no car park or directions. A small car park (about ten spaces) is mapped by the river at St Mullins Quay, at the foot of the lane that climbs beside the graveyard, and a reviewer praises the parking; it is not named by an official source. Other small parking areas are mapped by the bridge and south-east of the quay. Sport Ireland lists no public transport to St Mullins.
Driving pin: the quay car park, about 160 m from the round tower. Carlow Tourism's own coordinate, at the graveyard lane by the motte, is 52.489361, -6.928844. OPW's directory pin is in the village street about 310 m north of the monuments.
On a wooded promontory above the River Barrow, with the Blackstairs Mountains to the east, St Mullins is counted by OPW among the country's most important archaeological sites, alongside Glendalough and Clonmacnoise. St Moling founded the monastery in the seventh century, and his holy well by the river still draws pilgrims for its healing powers. Within the village graveyard stand the stump of a round tower, the base and head of a solid-wheeled high cross showing Christ and the Apostles, and the ruins of several churches, the oldest from around the tenth or eleventh century and the largest, the Abbey, probably of the fifteenth, with a tiny oratory dedicated to St James. Above them rises a Norman motte and bailey, and the Kavanagh mausoleum remembers Art MacMurrough Kavanagh, King of Leinster, poisoned at New Ross in 1417; men of the 1798 rebellion are buried here too. Reviewers enjoy the riverside walks and the cafe at the quay, where the Barrow Way towpath ends; dogs may walk it on a lead.
An unguided open-air national monument in OPW's care with no staff and no facilities. OPW warns that care and caution should be kept throughout a visit to its unguided sites.
OPW's page prints 'Opening Hours: Tuesday & Wednesday 09:30 - 17:00 / Sunday 14:00 - 17:00' for this unguided site; the monuments stand in an open, active village graveyard, and the hours may be those of the community heritage centre in the 19th-century church (not confirmed).
A sloping graveyard still in use, with steps; be respectful of recent graves. The holy well is by the river about 160 m north of the round tower.
The Barrow Way, Waterways Ireland's towpath walk from Lowtown in County Kildare, ends at St Mullins Quay; dogs on a lead.
Dogs: Dogs on a lead may walk the Barrow Way towpath, which ends at St Mullins Quay below the graveyard.
Photo: St Mullins graveyard on its wooded promontory, with the ruined churches of St Moling's monastery beside the pinnacled 19th-century church. James Keppel, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Mullins_Graveyard_and_Monastic_site.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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Waterways Ireland's linear towpath way from Lowtown, County Kildare, to St Mullins (about 114 km); the final stretch from Graiguenamanagh follows the river to St Mullins Quay below the graveyard. Sport Ireland names 'the beautiful monastic site and village of St Mullins'.
