Dublin Castle, Dublin

Certainly a great experience but it's not what you would think. The tour is on the shorter side. You do get to see a few spots of the medieval castle as well as you get to view the church which was certainly a site to see. The rooms though have all been remodeled and updated. If you know that going into it, you won't be disappointed. I read reviews prior that communicated it would be more historic and medieval which set my expectations very high unfortunately. If you get a Dublin pass the castle is free.

Stately home, not a castle. The self guided tour was included with our Dublin pass and I'm glad I went because the rooms are beautiful. We would have had to wait a while for a guided tour so we elected to just do the self guided. The signs are clear and the palace is beautiful. My husband was expecting something more medieval and he was disappointed. While I liked it, we we're only there 30 minutes and I'm not sure it would have been worth the price if we didn't have the Dublin pass.

This Castle is one of the most beautiful castles I have ever seen. If you ever come close to it I would definitely go there and at least take a little walk around it. It looks as if it was new, and the garden on both sides is a really nice touch. Great for taking pictures too!

Dublin castle was interesting but definitely not on the top of my list of sites in Dublin. Don't get me wrong. You should do the tour if you're interested in history. Just don't expect to see an actual castle. I really enjoyed seeing the state banquet room where the president is inaugurated and where foreign leaders are entertained.

The extra 3 Euro for the guided tour (so 10 rather than the 7 Euro for the self-guided tour) is SO worth it! The self guided tour is only of some of the state rooms (which are very cool, don't get me wrong) in the functioning "palace" that is active government buildings. The guided tour, beyond getting fun history tidbits you might miss doing it yourself, grants you access first to the old remains of the powder tower and viking excavation area where they carefully over 2 years excavated the base of one of the 4 towers of the original castle (there is only 1 remaining that you can see above ground, near the Chapel Royal, being renovated into a museum during the next two years) and some of the moat, and down to the original viking sea break wall.... Awesome history beneath administrative buildings! After that you get guided-tour only access to the Chapel Royal which is amazing, and has fantastic details explained by the guides, and an absolutely stunning pipe organ. After those 2 exclusive places, and discussion of the fire in the castle, and all that history, you head into the palace to get the rest of the history and see the lovely State Rooms. It was fantastic! Make sure you enjoy the green, the original site of the "black pool" that Dublin got its name from, was. There's some construction (tower and an archway), but that's life, so I didn't deduct points. It wasn't overly intrusive.