Free entry for English Heritage members
This place is cared for by the Office of Public Works, which runs Ireland's national heritage sites as Heritage Ireland. English Heritage members are entitled to free entry to all OPW sites from the first year of membership. Show your current membership card at admissions.
More information
The guided tour of the keep is the only way into the tower; the castle grounds are free of charge to everyone and self-guided. Tickets at the desk only, no online booking. OPW's general rule gives free admission to children under 12 and to visitors with disabilities and their carers. Free for English Heritage members showing a valid card, from the first year of membership (every OPW site; the named members on the card). Heritage Card holders free.
OPW's Child/Student rate; no age band given on the page, and OPW says children under 12 visit free. Grounds free. Free for English Heritage members showing a valid card, from the first year of membership (every OPW site; the named members on the card). Heritage Card holders free.
OPW's Group/Senior rate; no age given on the page. Grounds free. Free for English Heritage members showing a valid card, from the first year of membership (every OPW site; the named members on the card). Heritage Card holders free.
OPW's family ticket; the page does not define the family. Grounds free. Free for English Heritage members showing a valid card, from the first year of membership (every OPW site; the named members on the card). Heritage Card holders free.
No OPW car park; Meath County Council's Emmet Street car park, three minutes' walk from the castle entrance, charges €3 for the day (pay and display 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, free on Sundays and public holidays). Not a Trust car park, so membership does not cover it.
Trim has no castle car park. OPW's social guide and Meath County Council both point to the Emmet Street car park, 85 m off Emmet Street and three minutes' walk from the castle entrance, with an all-day rate of €3.00; town-centre pay and display runs 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday at about €1 an hour and is not in operation on Sundays or public holidays. The council's Jonathan Swift Street car park is also €3 a day and Tower View on the Athboy Road €2 a day. These are council charges; an English Heritage card gives nothing on parking.
Driving pin: the Emmet Street car park, 178 m west of the castle. Transport for Ireland's journey planner lists a Trim, Trim Castle bus stop; there is no railway station in Trim.
Trim Castle is the largest Anglo-Norman fortification in Ireland, begun by Hugh de Lacy and finished by his successors over thirty years on the bank of the Boyne. Its heart is a monumental three-storey keep, a twenty-sided cruciform tower all but impregnable in its day behind a ditch, curtain wall and water-filled moat. It is often called King John's Castle, though John preferred his tent across the river, and Richard II left the future Henry V here as a prisoner in 1399. The grounds are free to wander with interpretation panels, while the keep is seen only on a guided tour that climbs steep narrow stairs past the chapel, crosses modern walkways over the interior and ends on the roof with wide views. Visitors rate the tour good value and the guides lively, and the Porch Field riverside walk starts beside the castle. Arrive early in summer, as tours cannot be guaranteed, and use the Emmet Street car park three minutes away.
Prices, non-members
1 to 31 October daily 9am to 4pm. Trim Castle will close for works from 1 November 2026 to 1 April 2027 (OPW's published closure; whether the free grounds also close is not stated, so assume the whole site). OPW's usual pattern: January weekends only 9am to 4pm, 5 February to 16 March daily 9am to 4pm, 17 March to 30 September daily 10am to 5pm, October daily 9am to 4pm. The keep is seen by guided tour only, bought at the ticket desk at the top of the causeway with no online booking, and the grounds are self-guided with interpretation panels; the site is very busy in summer, access cannot be guaranteed and OPW asks visitors to arrive early. Recheck the 2027 season from 1 April 2027.
Access for visitors with disabilities is very restricted: a sloping gravel causeway to the ticket desk, then steep, narrow and uneven stairs in the keep, which is not accessible to wheelchair users; the grounds offer restricted access only. Toilets near the ticket desk; no cafe or shop beyond souvenir booklets and postcards at the desk; card payments accepted. No picnics inside the walls, though there are picnic tables on the green outside and plenty of places to eat in the town. No climbing on the walls.
Photo: Trim Castle's great keep rising behind the curtain wall and a round gate tower, seen across the grass of the outer ward. Jury21, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trim_Castle_Ireland_1.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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Dogs, with restrictions
1.5 km easy waymarked loop of about an hour from the car park beside the castle, on a surfaced path along the Boyne and around the Porch Fields parkland; free, open parkland managed by Trim Civic Offices.
Dog access not confirmed
Meath County Council way-marked river walk starting at Trim Castle and finishing at the ruins of the thirteenth-century town of Newtown; free; no dog rule published.
Dog access not confirmed
3.7 km easy route starting at Trim Castle along the Porchfields to Newtown and back along the Dublin road on footpaths and fields; free; no dog rule published.
