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music · Sunday 19 July 2026 · 7:00pm 
Live Trad Session at Black Castle Bar
At Black Castle Bar · 62 Main Street, Wicklow, Co. Wicklow
At Black Castle Bar · 62 Main Street, Wicklow, Co. Wicklow
Every Sunday evening, Black Castle Bar on Main Street in Wicklow Town opens its doors to whoever turns up with an instrument, or just an ear for a tune. The session runs from 7pm to 9pm and has become one of the steady fixtures of the Wicklow Town music week, drawing a mix of regular local players and visiting musicians passing through. There is no cover charge and no sign-up sheet, just a table cleared for whoever wants to play.
Expect fiddles, tin whistles, banjos, guitars and the odd accordion working through reels, jigs and slow airs for the two-hour stretch. The lineup changes week to week since sessions like this run on whoever shows up, so a quiet Sunday with three or four players is just as likely as a full table of a dozen musicians trading tunes. Black Castle Bar takes its name from the ruined Anglo-Norman castle on the coastline just south of Wicklow Harbour, one of the town’s oldest landmarks, and the pub has built a reputation as a proper local for live sport as well as music. Listeners are as welcome as players. It is an informal, pull-up-a-stool evening rather than a ticketed gig, and regulars say the session has been running long enough that newcomers are folded in without much fuss.
Black Castle Bar is on Main Street in Wicklow Town, a short walk from the train station and the harbour. Wicklow is served by Irish Rail on the Dublin to Rosslare line, and Wicklow Town has on-street parking and a public car park close to the seafront within a few minutes’ walk of the bar.
Black Castle Bar sits close to the harbour and the walking route out to the castle ruins the pub is named after, so a Sunday session pairs easily with an evening walk along the water. There is more to see in Wicklow and across Co. Wicklow.
Heading to Black Castle Bar in Wicklow? Wicklow has plenty more to see. Read the Wicklow area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.
In town for Black Castle Bar? These Wicklow tours book out in summer.