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heritage · Wednesday 15 July 2026 · 2:00pm 
Castletown House Heritage Tours - Summer Season
At Castletown House · Celbridge, Co. Kildare
At Castletown House · Celbridge, Co. Kildare
Castletown House is Ireland’s largest and earliest Palladian mansion, built between 1722 and 1729 for William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons - and these summer guided tours let you get properly inside it, not just walk the grounds. For anyone interested in Georgian architecture, the story of 18th-century Anglo-Irish life, or simply a genuinely impressive house, this is one of the better ways to spend an afternoon in the Leinster countryside. It suits adults and older teens well; there is a lot of interior detail to take in and a good guide makes all the difference.
The tour takes you through rooms that were restored over decades before the house passed to the Office of Public Works in 1994. The centrepiece is the cantilevered staircase of Portland stone - a remarkable piece of craftsmanship installed in the 1760s under the direction of sculptor Simon Vierpyl, with elaborate stucco decoration in the staircase hall by the Swiss-born Lafranchini brothers. The Green and Red Drawing Rooms give a clear sense of how the Conolly family received guests, and the Print Room is the only intact 18th-century print room surviving in Ireland - an unusual decorative technique where engravings were cut out and pasted directly to the walls as a fashionable pastime. Guides cover the architecture, the families who lived here, and the long restoration effort that saved the house from dereliction after 1965. Plan for roughly 1.5 to 2 hours for the full guided tour, with time to walk the parklands separately. The parklands and river walks along the Liffey are open daily free of charge, so it is worth arriving a little early or staying on after the tour.
Celbridge is around 25 km south-west of Dublin city centre. By car, take the N4 out of Dublin and follow signs for Celbridge; the house is well signposted on the edge of town. There is on-site parking. By public transport, Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus serve Celbridge from the city, and the journey takes roughly 45 to 60 minutes depending on the route - check the journey planner at transportforireland.ie for current timetables. The nearest train stations are Hazelhatch and Straffan on the Kildare commuter line, about 4 km from the house, which is manageable by taxi.
Celbridge itself sits on the River Liffey and has a quiet village centre worth a short walk. Castletown’s recently expanded demesne - the Irish State purchased additional lands in late 2025, bringing the total to 475 acres - means there is a growing parkland to explore beyond the formal tour. There is more to see in Celbridge and across Co. Kildare.
Heading to Castletown House in Celbridge? Kildare has plenty more to see. Read the Celbridge area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.