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Swords near Dublin Airport Ireland Walking Tour Fun Experience
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From €15 per person
Swords is one of those towns most people pass through on the way to the airport without ever stopping - and that’s a shame, because it has a genuinely fascinating history shaped by monks, Vikings, Normans and the English over more than a thousand years.
This walking tour takes in three of the town’s most significant landmarks: Swords Castle, St. Colmcille’s Blessed Well, and the monastery church, Round Tower and belfry. Your guide is a local historian and a Swords native. This is his town, and he knows it well.
Along the way you’ll hear about Brian Ború, High King of Ireland, whose body was brought to Swords after his army’s victory over the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 AD. The Round Tower here was the site of his wake. Your guide brings the story to life with a ballad he wrote about Brian Ború, and you’ll be expected to sing along. There’s also a souvenir pack for everyone, and something extra for any kids in the group.
The tour is suitable for all ages.
You start at Swords Castle, built around 1200 AD as an Archbishop’s Palace by the Anglo-Normans. From there you walk to the Round Tower where Brian Ború was waked following the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, explore the monastic settlement, and visit the healing well blessed by St. Colmcille, the spot around which Swords itself was founded.
The full walk takes around 2 hours.
Meeting point: Your guide, Ó’Donghaile from The Jungle, meets you at the entrance to Swords Castle. Look for the “Cute Hoor Tours” sign or umbrella.
This tour is a genuine find if you have a few hours before a flight. Swords is on the main bus routes from Dublin city centre, and the town is only about 15 minutes from the airport itself. It’s the kind of morning you’d never think to plan until someone tells you about it.
The Round Tower is one of the finest surviving examples in the country. Ireland’s round towers were built between roughly the 9th and 12th centuries as bell towers and places of refuge. The one in Swords is particularly well preserved, and standing at its base while your guide explains what happened here in 1014 is a genuinely memorable experience.
St. Colmcille’s Blessed Well is still a live pilgrimage site. People still visit the well, particularly around the feast day of St. Colmcille on 9th June. The traditions around it go back to the early Christian period in Ireland, and your guide will tell you exactly what those traditions were.
Swords Castle is free to enter. It’s not fully restored, but that’s part of what makes it interesting: you can see the original structures without everything being tidied up and roped off. The guides are knowledgeable about the Anglo-Norman period and worth talking to if you want more context.
Take the bus rather than a taxi if you’re coming from the city. The 41 and 41X from Dublin city centre serve Swords directly and drop you close to the castle. It’s an easy journey and saves you the hassle of finding parking in the town centre.