Malahide, Dublin

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Malahide Castle was home to the Talbot family for an incredible 791 years (from 1185 to 1976)! It is located a short walk away from the train station in Malahide (turn right when you leave the station), and the walk to Malahide Castle is actually quite pleasant as the grounds and woods are beautiful. Admission costs 7.50 Euros, and an audio tour on speakers guides you through the castle. This means that as you listen to the amazing story of the castle and the Talbot family, you are free to roam around each room as you please instead of having to focus your attention on a tour guide. I especially liked the feeling of opening the doors and being the first to walk into one of the castle's appartments!

When you're done visiting the castle, it's worth making a short detour to walk around the old town of Malahide. Until about 50 years ago, Malahide was still a small town of about 1,500 people, but its population has now swelled to over 25,000 people. However, the old part of the city has retained all of its small town charms. We ended up having lunch at Smyth's Public House, a nice pub located on New Street. It was a really great way to spend a few hours outside of the city!

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Malahide Castle is located centrally in Malahide town in proximity to the Dart station, it is a valuable piece of architecture set on 250 acres of park land and was both a fortress and a private home for the Talbot family.
The castle is certailny worth visiting, it is furnished with beautiful period furniture together with an extensive collection of Irish portrait paintings. A guided tour will take you centuries back to everyday life of the Talbot family and maybe if you are really lucky you will spot the castle ghost!

Admission Price for an adult is 7,25 and 4,55 for children under 12.

Malahide is a small town on the east coast of Ireland, just north of Dublin City. It is known for it's Marina (the only natural inlet along the East Coast) and for winning tidiest towns competitions several times.
Malahidel has this village atmosphere, that makes you want stay there and live a peacufull life of your own! But off course the time has kept with it, in the town you will find many facilities, small supermarkets, a shopping center and of course as any Irish town a broad range of pubs and restaurants.

Visit Malahide as it is not far from Dublin (and easily accesible by both Dart and Bus). There is plenty to do in the town, you can visit the Malahide castle grounds with the castle itself, once you are there go to Tara's Palace (possibly the largest dollhouse in Europe) and the fry model railway. Then if you are not exhausted from wandering around the castle grounds visit the Marina and have some wonderfull sea food in the Grand Hotel restaurant!

Very relaxing, great when the weather is nice, but if you want to see the inside don't forget it closes at 5 pm. No pictures-again- sorry! I am the worst pesron to be given a camera, I just forget, I am useless!

We took the DART up to the town of Malahide(about a half an hour ride)to see the castle and the gardens....and nice walk off the Dart thru a park leads you to the castle built in the late 1200's and owned by the Tabot family for almost 750 years. Once at the castle a short tour lets you expore the inside of the castle ,even though only 4 or 5 rooms are open it's a nice way to spend a weekend afternoon especially if you never been to a castle. Highly recommend it. Cost of admission to the castle is 7 euro's, the gardens and the surrounding parks are free.

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For more than 750 years the same family was living at Malahide Castle. The Talbot family lived here between 1185 - 1973, except the years when Cromwell was in Ireland 1649 - 1660. The last Lord Talbot died in 1973 and then his sister sold the castle to the Irish state and moved to a family plantation in Tasmania.

To see the castle you must join a guided tour. I don’t think you will have to wait very long, I didn’t even if it was February when I visited. The first room the group was taken to was a 16th century oak room with beautiful carvings. In the castle there are many lovely furniture and portrait paintings (many of the paintings are from the National Gallery), but you are not allowed to take any photos of them.

Entrance fee is 7 Euro (February 2007).
The castle is open all year round Monday - Saturday between 10am - 5pm. It is also open on Sundays and Public Holidays, April - September 10pm -6am and October - March 11am - 5pm. There are no tours around lunch, 12.45pm - 2pm.

Malahide is situated about 13 km north of Dublin city centre.

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Malahide Castle had been the home of the Talbot family for around 800 years, until the 1976 when the Dublin County Council brought it. The Castle was built by Sir Richard de Talbot. Around 1185, the castle started as a 3 floor tower house and over the centuries various extensions were added. The castle is located just north of Dublin. To get here we took a Gray line tourist bus which cost about $25 euros and takes you around the scenic Dublin Bay. Various other companies run buses to the Castle from O'Connell Street at different times. We later learned that you can also take the public Dart train or the 42 bus from the City Centre near the Custom House for less. It takes about 50 minutes for the bus ride to the Castle. Our driver was very entertaining. He told us some stories about Dublin and even sang the story of Molly Malone when we passed her statue. We were given an hour on the Castle grounds. When in the castle, an over-head voice over tells you about each room and the house and directs you where to go next. The castle has rooms with different styles from different periods over the centuries. You are not allowed to photograph the room, hence I have no pictures of the interiors, so I will describe 2 key rooms. The Oak Room was added in 1820 and is lined with carved oak from floor to ceiling. There are various subjects from the bible in the room, suggesting that the Talbots may have used this room as a chapel at some point. Just over the mantelpiece is a representation of the coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is said the Virgin disappeared when Cromwell seized the Castle and reappeared when the Talbots came back. Another interesting room is the Great Hall where there are portraits of members of different generations of the family, these help to tell some of the history of Ireland. When you are finished touring the castle, you may want to take a bite in the café or shop in the gift shop. There is also a lovely 20 acre garden which you can walk through which has 5,000 varieties of plants.

If you want to get out of the city for a day take the DART train out of town to somewhere like Malahide or Howth.

Malahide is to the north of the city, a smallish town on the coast. All bright buildings and hanging baskets full of flowers, very pretty! :) The most well known place here is the castle, which is within easy walking distance of the station.
You can also walk down to the marina area or stop off in one of the many restaurants or pubs

Recently paid a visit to Malahide Castle & grounds with a couple of friends on the spur of the moment.... one of those times when you dont bring a camera - duh!! So I've taken the photo from the website cited below.

It's €6 to tour the castle. Behind the castle, there is a craft shop and miniature musuem in the courtyard. The red Dublin tour bus will take you directly to Malahide Castle.

The grounds are very safe to walk around in and popular with local sport teams.

Check out my Howth page for all the details, but in short, Malahide is a great day trip from Dublin. You can be here in about a half hour and the history of the Talbot family who occupied this place for many centuries is really worth learning about.