Castles of Ireland

Castle Hotels in Ireland You Can Actually Stay In

Ireland has plenty of castles you can walk around; these are the ones where you can put your bags down and sleep.

If you want to stay in a castle in Ireland, you have more choice than you might expect: grand Victorian pastiches on lake shores, a Norman site that has housed one family for centuries, and a Dublin castle with a Templar past. This guide picks ten real castle hotels across the country, with the county, a line of history and what sets each apart. We have deliberately left out rates and room details. Prices and availability change, so use each hotel’s own website.

The great estates

Ashford Castle, County Galway. On the shore of Lough Corrib near Cong, the original castle was built by the Anglo-Norman Burke family in 1228. The Guinness family bought the estate in 1852, and Arthur Guinness, Baron Ardilaun, enlarged it in Neo-Gothic style between 1875 and 1881. It became a hotel in 1939 and, after a major refurbishment, reopened in 2015 under Red Carnation Hotels. The castle also appears in The Quiet Man (1951).

Dromoland Castle, County Clare. The ancestral home of the O’Brien family, Barons of Inchiquin, who trace their line to Brian Boru. The present house is a Gothic Revival design of 1835, and it has been a hotel since 1963, when the American businessman Bernard McDonough converted it.

Kilkea Castle, County Kildare. A motte and bailey was raised here in 1180 by Walter de Riddlesford, and for more than 700 years the castle was a stronghold of the FitzGeralds, Earls of Kildare, and is associated with the “Wizard Earl”, the 11th Earl. The family sold it in 1960, and it was restored as a hotel in 1966. It has since been renovated and reopened as a resort.

Ballynahinch Castle, County Galway. In Connemara, beside Ballynahinch Lake and under the Twelve Bens. The O’Flaherty family held the land from at least the 14th century, and the first castle here is dated to around 1546. Later it belonged to the Martins, including Richard “Humanity Dick” Martin, famed for animal welfare, and then to Ranjitsinhji, the Indian prince and Test cricketer, who bought it in 1924. It has been a hotel since the 1940s and is known for fishing and walking.

Houses with a story

Cabra Castle, County Cavan. Near Kingscourt, a neo-Norman house built in the early 1800s for the Foster family; the cost reportedly bankrupted them, and it was later sold. It has been a hotel since the early 1990s under the Corscadden family, after earlier spells as a hotel in the 1960s. The ruins of the older Cabra House lie nearby in Dún a’ Rí Forest Park.

Barberstown Castle, County Kildare. At Straffan, about 25 km west of Dublin. Nicholas Barby built the first castle around 1288, and Hugh Barton of the wine family added the last wing in the 1830s. It has been a hotel since 1971. During renovations in 1996 a tunnel linking the castle to the church in Straffan was found.

Waterford Castle, County Waterford. The only castle on this list on its own island: it stands on Little Island in the River Suir, just outside Waterford city. The present Gothic house incorporates an older tower house, and it was developed as a hotel in the 1980s.

Clontarf Castle, Dublin. The best-placed castle hotel for a city break. The first castle was raised in 1172, and the Knights Templar later held the lands. The present building was designed by William Vitruvius Morrison in 1837, and it reopened as a hotel in June 1997. Handel is said to have visited during his 1742 stay in Dublin.

The north and north-west

Lough Eske Castle, County Donegal. A grand Elizabethan-style house on the shore of Lough Eske, designed by the Derry architect Fitzgibbon Louch for the Brooke family and dated variously to the 1860s. After a long decline and a fire, it was restored and reopened as a hotel. The hotel’s own history page gives its version of the story.

Markree Castle, County Sligo. At Collooney, the Cooper family seat since 1663, partly encircled by the River Unshin. The present house dates from 1802, with later changes. It was empty from 1982 to 1992 before reopening as a hotel. In 1830 Edward Joshua Cooper built an observatory in the grounds whose telescope was for some years the largest in the world, and the asteroid Metis was discovered there. Ireland’s lowest officially recorded air temperature, -19.1°C, was measured here on 16 January 1881.

Choosing one

If you want the full lake-and-mountain fantasy, Ashford and Ballynahinch deliver it. For a Clare base with a long family history behind it, Dromoland is the obvious choice. For a city base, Clontarf is hard to beat, and for a quieter, less obvious stay, look at Markree in the north-west or Cabra in the drumlin country of Cavan. Kilkea and Barberstown are within easy reach of Dublin.

And if you want to stay near Ardfinnan

Ardfinnan is a good example of what you cannot do: its Norman castle, built by Prince John in 1185 above the ford on the Suir, is now a private home and not open to visitors. You can still see it from the village and its bridge, and Cahir Castle, about 10 km (6 miles) by road, is open to the public. For a wider round-up of castles you can walk around rather than sleep in, read our guide to the best castles in Ireland.