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heritage · Wednesday 12 August 2026 · Various 
Castletown House Guided Tours, Celbridge
At Castletown House · Celbridge, Co. Kildare
At Castletown House · Celbridge, Co. Kildare
Castletown House is Ireland’s earliest and finest Palladian house, built through the 1720s for William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. The Office of Public Works runs guided tours of the interior daily through the 2026 season, which runs from 15 March to 4 November, with the house open 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM and the last tour going in at 4:00 PM.
The tour takes in the rooms restored over decades before the house passed to the OPW in 1994. The cantilevered Portland stone staircase, installed in the 1760s under the sculptor Simon Vierpyl, is the architectural centrepiece, with stucco work in the staircase hall by the Swiss-born Lafranchini brothers. The Green and Red Drawing Rooms show how the Conollys received guests, and the Print Room is the only intact eighteenth-century print room surviving in Ireland, its walls papered with cut-out engravings. Guides cover the architecture, the families and the long rescue of the house from dereliction after 1965. The parklands are open separately from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM daily and are free to walk.
Celbridge is around 20 km west of Dublin. By car, take the N4 or M4 and follow signs for Celbridge; the house is signposted on the edge of the town and has on-site parking. Hazelhatch and Celbridge railway station, on the Dublin Heuston to Kildare commuter line, is about 4 km away and manageable by taxi. Dublin Bus runs services to Celbridge from the city centre, with the journey taking roughly 45 to 60 minutes depending on the route.
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.