National Museum of Ireland, ArchaeologyThe Kildare Street museum. The Ardagh Chalice, the Tara Brooch and the bog bodies are all in it.Guide
Free things to do in Ireland
The best free days out in Ireland are the national museums, which charge nothing at all, and the enormous number of prehistoric and early Christian sites that sit in open fields with a gate and an information board and nobody to pay. The rule that tells you which is which: if there is a visitor centre, there is usually a charge, and if there is a field, there usually is not.
The national museums charge nothing, and that is the best value in the country
All four branches of the National Museum of Ireland are free, every day they are open. In Dublin the National Museum of Ireland, Archaeology holds the prehistoric gold and the bog bodies. In Mayo the National Museum of Ireland, Country Life at Turlough Park covers how people actually lived here between 1850 and 1950.
The National Gallery of Ireland is free as well, and so are the National Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin. Between them that is four full days in Dublin at no cost, which is not the city's reputation.
Prehistoric sites in open fields
This is where Ireland is unusual. Most countries put a fence and a kiosk round a five thousand year old tomb. Here a lot of them are in a field with a stile. Brownshill Portal Dolmen has a capstone weighing over a hundred tonnes and sits in a field 3km outside Carlow town. Poulnabrone Portal Tomb is beside the road on the Burren. Proleek Dolmen is through a hotel car park and across a golf course.
Kilclooney Dolmen and Kilmogue Portal Tomb are the same kind of visit. Loughcrew Cairns is a hill with passage tombs on top of it and you walk up. Hill of Tara is earthworks in grass. Downpatrick Head in north Mayo is a headland with a sea stack standing off it and nothing between you and it but a path.
Monastic sites and high crosses, mostly open
The early Christian sites are the other great free category. Monasterboice has two of the best high crosses in Europe and a round tower, in a working graveyard, with a gate. Glendalough is a valley with a monastic city in it, and the valley, the lakes, the round tower and the churches cost nothing to walk among. The visitor centre is the part with a ticket.
Clonmacnoise on the Shannon, Ardmore Round Tower and Cathedral, Kilkieran High Crosses, Clones Round Tower and High Cross, Drumcliffe with Yeats buried in it and St Mullins above the Barrow are all in the same bracket. Kells Priory is about three acres inside a wall of seven towers and the gate is open.
Hills, headlands and waterfalls
No hill in Ireland charges. Croagh Patrick is the famous climb and it is harder than it looks. Benbulben and Knocknarea are both a morning. Mount Errigal is the highest in Donegal. Great Sugar Loaf is the shortest of the well known ones and the one to pick with children.
Two counties get left out of lists like this one and should not be. Slieve Bloom Mountains straddle Laois and Offaly and the walk up Glenbarrow to the waterfall is the best short one in the midlands. Rock of Dunamase is a ruined castle on a rock over the plain with a path up it. In Longford, Derrycassin Wood and Newcastle Woods are both open forest, and Richmond Harbour at Clondra is where the Royal Canal meets the Shannon.
The headlands are the same. Malin Head, Mullaghmore Head, Downpatrick Head, Bridges of Ross and Slea Head are roads, car parks and paths. So are the waterfalls: Torc Waterfall, Glencar Waterfall, Mahon Falls, Glenevin Waterfall and Tullydermot Falls.
Greenways and city parks
The greenways are all free to walk or cycle, and they are old railway lines so they are flat. Great Western Greenway runs 42km from Westport to Achill. Waterford Greenway runs 46km from Waterford to Dungarvan over three viaducts and through a tunnel. Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk is about 7km along the sea.
In the cities, The Phoenix Park is one of the largest walled city parks in Europe, St Stephen's Green is the one everybody sits in, People's Park is the Limerick equivalent and Salthill Promenade is Galway's.
Beaches, and the whole coast road
Every beach in Ireland is free to walk on. The twenty we would name are in the beaches guide, and the short version here is Inchydoney Beach, Keem Bay, Marble Hill Beach and Curracloe Beach, one per province.
The coast road itself is the biggest free thing in the country. Slea Head in Kerry, Doolough Valley in Mayo and the road out to Malin Head are three of the best drives in Ireland and none of them asks you for anything. Gleniff Horseshoe is a loop road under a cliff that takes twenty minutes and almost nobody does.
The honest bit about prices
We are not printing a price for anything on this page, including the word free beside individual attractions, except where it is a matter of public policy like the national museums and the National Gallery. Parking charges appear and disappear, visitor centres change their opening months, and a site that was open ground last summer can have a fence round it this one.
The rule that holds: open ground, a public path, a graveyard or a hill is almost always free, and anything with a building, a car park attendant or a guided tour almost always is not. Check the individual place before you drive, and treat this page as a list of where to look rather than a list of prices.
Questions people ask
Are museums free in Ireland?
The four branches of the National Museum of Ireland and the National Gallery of Ireland charge nothing for general entry, as a matter of policy. County museums, heritage centres and privately run museums usually do charge, and the amounts vary, so check each one.
Can you visit Irish dolmens and stone circles for free?
Most of them, yes. A large number of Ireland's prehistoric monuments sit on open land with a gate, a stile and an information board and nobody collecting money. The exceptions are the ones with a visitor centre attached, which is a small minority of them.
What is the best free day out in Ireland?
For one day at no cost, Glendalough in Wicklow: a glacial valley, two lakes, a round tower and a monastic settlement, with walking routes from twenty minutes to four hours. Only the visitor centre charges.
The places in this guide
54 places, each with a page of its own.
National Museum of Ireland, ArchaeologyThe Kildare Street museum. The Ardagh Chalice, the Tara Brooch and the bog bodies are all in it.
National Museum of Ireland, Country LifeIrish rural life, in the grounds of Turlough Park House outside Castlebar.
National Gallery of IrelandThe state art collection on Merrion Square. You can walk in free, and Caravaggio's Taking of Christ is in there.
National Botanic GardensGlasshouses and planted grounds at Glasnevin on the bank of the Tolka, free to walk around.
Brownshill Portal DolmenThe granite capstone here weighs over a hundred tonnes, and it has been sitting in this field 3km east of Carlow town since the neolithic.
Poulnabrone Portal TombThe capstone is propped on two upright slabs, sitting on bare limestone beside the R480, and it has been there since the neolithic.
Proleek DolmenThe capstone weighs about forty tonnes and balances on three uprights, in a field near Ballymascanlon.
Kilclooney DolmenThe capstone is close to six metres long, up on a ridge northwest of Ardara.
Kilmogue Portal TombThe capstone is tilted up at a steep angle, and this is one of the tallest portal tombs in the country, near Harristown.
Loughcrew CairnsPassage tombs scattered across the hills west of Oldcastle, up a steep walk from the car park.
Hill of TaraGrassed earthworks on a low ridge south of Navan, where the high kings were made. It is open ground and free to walk.
Downpatrick HeadThe headland is grass on top, with the Dun Briste sea stack standing just off it.More guides
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