Kilkenny Castle Parklands tops list of Fáilte Ireland’s most visited free sites in Ireland

Kilkenny Castle Parklands has – for the first time – topped the list of the most visited free-to-enter attractions in Ireland.

Fáilte Ireland has today published the list of the top visitor attractions in the country for 2018.

As always, the Guinness Storehouse has come up trumps on the list of fee-charging attractions with 1.74 million people.

Last month KCLR revealed Kilkenny Castle Grounds had a record almost 800,000 visitors during the year.

It’s come in just ahead of the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin to clinch the top spot on the non-fee-charging list.

Overall, the top ten fee-charging attractions during 2018 were:

1. Guinness Storehouse – 1,736,156 (visitors)
2. Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience – 1,580,000
3. Dublin Zoo – 1,230,145
4. Book of Kells – 1,057,642
5. Tayto Park – 700,000
6. St Patrick’s Cathedral – 627,199
7. Kylemore Abbey & Garden – 561,657
8. Muckrose House – 550,649
9. Powerscourt House Gardens and Waterfall – 472,523
10. Blarney Castle & Gardens – 460,000

Ireland’s top ten ‘free to enter’ attractions for 2018 were:

1. Kilkenny Castle Parklands² – 799,032
2. The National Gallery of Ireland³ – 775,491
3. Glendalough Site – 732,824
4. National Botanic Gardens – 655,609
5. Castletown House Parklands – 642,278
6. Irish Museum of Modern Art – 505,891
7. Doneraile Park – 490,000
8. National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, 466,038
9. Farmleigh House Estate – 389,932
10. Battle of the Boyne/Oldbridge Est – 355,608

Kilkenny Castle Parklands introduced a new counter system mid-2017. This system collected visitor numbers for a 12-month period for the first time in 2018.