Malahide Castle

Malahide Castle is one of the oldest and most historic castles in Ireland. From 1185 until 1975, it was the home of the Talbot family. Set on 250 acres of park land, the Castle was both a fortress and a private home for nearly eight hundred years. This was a remarkable tenure by any a single family and is one of the longest in Ireland.

The house is furnished with beautiful period furniture together with an extensive collection of Irish portrait paintings, mainly from the National Gallery of Ireland. The history of the Talbot family is recorded in the Great Hall with portraits of generations telling their own story of Ireland’s stormy history. One of the poignant legends concerns the morning of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when fourteen members of the family breakfasted together in this room, never to return, as all were dead by nightfall.

Many additions and alterations have been made to this romantic and beautiful structure, but the contours of the surrounding parklands have changed little in eight hundred years, retaining a wonderful sense of the past.