Irish National Stud & Gardens Skip the line Entrance

An excellent day out lovely setting very informative staff. Restaurant VERY expensive though so bring a picnic.

What a waste of a day, don't bother going here unless you have tons of money to waste and want to see as many horses as you do at an aquarium. We went as a family of 5 - two adults, one senior and two children. The Japanese gardens were lovely so we started there. Unfortunately we clearly peaked too soon, as the rest of the "attraction" was abysmal. We had to skip the guided tour as the wait was too long for the kids (we'd just missed one) so cannot comment on this, but seeing the groups that were going round they were large and didn't look engaged or like they could hear the guide well, although that is just our perception and may not be accurate. We tried looking around the stabling and it was all shut up, no horses in (beautiful day so I get it, they should all be out), but also a complete absence of signage or information boards to help us understand first what we were looking at, second anything about racing, breeding etc. Continued on the the walks around the ground. Lovely walks and beautiful trees. That's about all we can say. Saw one foal, and about 4 adult horses in total. Yet again, no information boards, no learning opportunities, absolutely nothing. I get time of year will play a part on how many foals etc, but we were exceptionally surprised just how few horses seemed to be at a "National Stud". By this time the kids were hungry, so we took a walk back to the only place to eat on site. Oh dear, what a disaster. Nothing for kids to eat apart from chips, even the crisps were "gourmet" with flavours like chilli. Helpful. If we had all eaten here we would have spent about €150, as it was we bought the kids a brownie each, two lots of chips (€4.50 each!) and a few drinks and spent over €40 which is an absolute disgrace, anyone would think they knew you were captive. We hung around and waited for the racehorse experience. Now be aware, this is the only place in the entire site there is any sort of educational signage etc. unfortunately you are rushed through by people coming in behind you and the need to keep "training" your horse that there is insufficient time or space to help kids understand what they are looking at. Add to that the tablets they gave you very much did their own thing and it was pretty much a disaster. We had factored in a day to visit here and felt we wasted a day of our holiday on something hugely expensive that the kids didn't really learn anything from. So many wasted opportunities here for them to help people understand even the basics about wheat they do. But no, absolutely nothing. Upshot, in our view, is if you want lovely walks on a beautiful day and don't want to teach your kids anything come spend money getting in here. However, if you have actual sense and want your kids to learn something please go elsewhere, we were very unhappy and left very disappointed.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Absolutely recommended! We had a very nice and interesting tour at the Irish National Stud. I knew little about the world of thoroughbred breeding beforehand, but that is precisely why I was surprised by how fascinating the visit was. That was largely due to our young guide Harry. He clearly knew what he was talking about and told with great enthusiasm and a wonderful sense of humour. As a result, the tour remained interesting from start to finish and was explained in an understandable and interesting way. And we learned about the breeding of thoroughbred horses and got a nice look behind the scenes of a world that was largely unknown to us. You also don't have to be a horse lover to enjoy a visit to the Irish National Stud. The combination of the beautiful surroundings, the Japanese gardens and all the information and especially a guide who knows how to tell with humor and knowledge, made it a very successful visit for us. Highly recommended 🇮🇪🐎

The tour through the Irish National Stud was overall relaxed and offered some interesting facts. However, we would have liked to see the horses in action more often. For children, the tour is therefore probably only interesting for a short time.

Beautiful place to visit! We spend there all day ! Japanese garden can't be skipped!