Kilmainham Gaol

I’m not surprised to see so many five star ratings. The tour is fantastic. It’s my number 1 recommendation to anyone visiting Dublin! It’s really well priced, 4 euro for an adult and 2 euro for a student/​child — amazing! If you want to learn a little more about Irish history it’s a must visit.

Kilmainham Gaol is a truly amazing place to visit. There is so much history inside those doors.
If you want to know what life was like during the 19^th century in Ireland’s prisons, this is the place to go.
It’s a great trip, it’s very reasonably priced and there’s even a little tearoom for when you’re finished.
Make sure to read the walls.

Very informative. We had tour guide which was really useful. A highlight of the trip. Come here if you like your history and want to know more.

When people ask where to visit in Dublin, and you reply «the gaol!», they often look at you with bemused or puzzled expressions. However, Kilmainhaim Gaol is one of the best attractions to visit in Dublin (and no, you don’t need to be arrested to visit).
A fascinating tour round this historic landmark, the tour guides really bring the history to life, peppering the tales with lots of fascinating facts including how originally the conditions inside the gaol were so much better than outside that people kept trying to be arrested to be let in, the similarities between the architecture of the main part and Stephen’s Green shopping centre, and of course the part it played in the Irish war of independence (as a Brit it seemed best to keep my accent hidden at times!).
A couple of tips:
1. As a popular tourist destination be aware you may have to queue to get in (bring an umbrella!)
2. Free entry on the first Wed of the month (though reasonably priced the rest of the time)

Absolute amazing tour! Like AMAZING! I’ve taken tours around Pompeii, the colosseum and the Acropolis in Greece and this one I actually enjoyed way more even though it took part on a rainy evening in Dublin city and not a scorching tropical part of the world. I was born and raised in Ireland and always had a fondness for Irish history and so I thought I’d go with my grandad who’s a history buff to visit this amazing building and indulge in its rich history.
The tour guide we had, Ruarí, was incredibly nice and informative. He had loads of info and cracked some pretty funny jokes. At one point my grandad went up to him and they had a chat about the IRB and the Fenians and he genuinely seemed to love history and have a passion for it. The museum itself is interesting and if you’re waiting for your tour to begin its a great place to chill and have a browse and the PA system gives you 5 minutes to get to the beginning spot of the tour when it’s about to start which is also great!
All in all this is a fantastic spot if you want to learn some history going back to the 1800’s and you can have a bit of craic with the tour guides. Costing between € 2 and € 5 for entry depending on if you’re a student or an adult with concessions for seniors you can’t go wrong! Tours usually last about an hour so a great way to spend an afternoon!

Kilmainham Gaol is one of the best places I visited while in Dublin. Although it has a dark history, it sure is a fascinating one. For only 4 euro/​pp, the guided tour made it all worth it. Our guide was very knowledgable and managed to pack in a lot of historical information while still making it entertaining.
A must see while in Dublin!

This should be the number 1 thing to do in Dublin. Cheap and a great experience.

This is a great tour. In my opinion its a great 1^st tour in Dublin. Guides are very good and give you a great education on not only the jail but some history in Ireland. There are a couple parts that are currently not open because of renovation — but that shouldn’t deter you from going. The visit takes approx 45 – 60 mins once your tour starts. The guide welcomes and answers any questions you may have.

Excellent historical tour, would highly recommend. There isn’t a way of buying tickets in advance of the day you want to go so allow time in your visit for this. When we visited, there was less than an hours wait between arriving to buy tickets (early afternoon) and the first available tour time, which allowed time to visit the museum and stop by the café (which was very busy). Great tour guides, informative tour, very interesting history and building and the entry price is a bargain.

Visited April 2015: «Glad that we did this tour before any other tour in Dublin»
We participated in the guided tour of the Kilmainham Goal, which is one of the most well-​known jails in Ireland history. The guide spoke about some of their politician leaders whom were hung there, and some even without a trial. We were not able to go into the East wing due to them placing a new roof on it, but we were able to see the old West wing which had no facilities for their personal needs. The guide also talked about how the prison was designed to hold 1 person per cell, but during the great famine, the cells would hold 6 – 8 people each.

Leider etwas Wartezeit, aber es lohnt sich!!! Sehr interessantes über die jüngere irische Geschichte wird «live» im ehemaligen Gefängnis vermittelt.
Achtung: macht nachdenklich…

One of the most interesting and incredible places to visit in Dublin with a good museum, good tour and friendly staff.
The tickets (guided tours only) sell very quickly during the summer however if your wait is 1 – 2 hours you can easily kill the time in the small café and spend a fair amount of time in the museum which covers the history of the jail, facts about jails in the past and the progression of the jails.
For only 4 euros it is well worth the 30 minute public bus journey or if you are on the hop on hop off I think it takes slightly less time.
Highlights are the east wing which has been beautifully restored — very spooky — but still has the engravings of old political prisoners. The tour guides are also fantastic with a vast knowledge of the history and the stories of the prisoners held there.
Highly recommend!

Cool history, but the main attraction is closed for construction. Still enjoyed the time there but would have liked to have seen the main reason we went.

Der Tourguide sprach sehr deutlich und führte uns aufmerksam durch das Gefängnis. Die Geschichte des Gefängnisses und die des Osteraufstandes mit anschließenden Exekutionen innerhalb des Gefängnisses wurden einem sehr nahe gebracht.
Leider wurde ein Teil des Gefängnisses zum Zeitpunkt des Besuchs restauriert und war nicht zugänglich. Dafür gab’s beim Ticket allerdings auch einen Preisnachlass.
Das Museum bietet einem auch viele interessante Eindrücke.
Preislich völlig in Ordnung.
In dem Café wollte ich nicht verweilen. Es hatte mehr einen billigen Kantinencharme.
Diese Tour kann ich nur weiterempfehlen!

Full of history and the ticket includes a guided visit that helps a lot to understand the place.
A decent level of english is required to understand the explanations. The main corridor is currently closed and you get a 30% discount for that, not bad.
I recommend the place to all those come to Dublin.

This prison has a fascinating history because many Irish political prisoners were incarcerated there. We enrolled on the guided tour which lasted about two and half hours, two hours of which was jaundiced political history. No doubt prisoners were not treated well, though I’m not convinced they were treated any worse than others in Europe at the time. The guide carefully avoided mentioning the crimes prisoners had committed, in fact some were responsible for the deaths of many human beings, for example; Henry McCracken was responsible for the deaths of 60 people; Robert Emmott was responsible for the deaths of 20 people. Several of those held at Kilmainham Gaol went on to live successful lives overseas. The problem is that one person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist.
It was great, though, to be in the place where ‘The Italian Job’ was filmed, you can almost hear them singing, ‘this is the self-​preservation society’. I award a one-​star rating for this.

Highly recommended. Your trip to Dublin wouldn’t be complete without visiting this place. If one were to describe this place in a few words it would be: dark, heartbreaking, and compelling. The tour guide was very informative, and the museum is magnificent. I left feeling overwhelmed by it all.
Museum — 4.5 stars
Tour guide — 5 stars

If there’s one thing you’re going to do in Ireland, this is it. The tour tells you an amazing story of the history of Ireland. At first it might seem odd that a jail would be such an important part of Irish history, but it really takes centerpiece when you understand just how many prominent Irish were sent there for rebelling against British rule. A good 100 years of Irish history is right here in this jail.
Highly recommend it for any history buffs and even those who aren’t — you’ll probably still appreciate it.

Si vienes a Dublin tienes que visitar la carcel. No es por que mole la carcel o no, que mola. Es por que te vas con una charla de la historia de Irlanda que te ayudará a conocer de donde viene esta gente.
Lo recomiendo mucho.
Consejo: Los tickets no se pueden coger de un día para otro pero si que puedes acercarte por la mañana a por ellos e ir de tarde a visitarlo que si es fin de semana va a ver gente a barullo y te quedarás sin verlo.
El tour es solo en Ingles
Cuando acabes el tour vete al Phoenix park andando que esta muy cerca y de paso visitas el obelisco!

For history buffs or anyone who is remotely interested in Ireland’s past, this is a great stop. We very much enjoyed our visit to Kilmainham. Unfortunately, sections of the prison were closed for renovations. The limited access was accounted for with a cheaper admission cost.
The building was a haunting reminder of a revolution that occurred in the not-​too-​distant past. Highly recommend making the trek to this site.

Al poco tiempo de llegar a Dublín, me entere que el primer miércoles de cada mes, la entrada a la gran mayoría de lugares considerados patrimonio histórico es gratis. Así que decidí ir a Kilmainham Jail. Es un lugar increíble! Te ayuda a conocer y entender más parte de la historia y cultura irlandesa. Si tu nivel de inglés no es muy bueno, no te vas a enterar mucho de lo que va diciendo el guía, pero aún así, el recorrido por las instalaciones es impresionante.

It was a pleasure to see Kilmainham Gaol.
My father, sister and I went here and bought tickets for the guided tour that started an hour later, there was plenty to see while we waited, there was information on what kind of crimes people had been imprisoned for and for how long. There was pictures of inmates and books with names of all the people that had been there over the years.
The tour stared and we were greeted by a great tour guide who introduced himself in Irish then English, I loved it!
We were led to the small chapel that belonged to the prison and shown pictures of some very important Irish people who died in the name of freedom.
The tour continued to the prison itself and our guide treated the dead with respect and honesty which was great, he was really passionate about the history and it was amazing to finally learn a bit more about Ireland and how hard it was to live here even 100 years ago.
I have lived in Ireland for 2 years and I wish I had learned more about the history sooner.
Just go, go and you will not regret it.

I have been there some time ago but still haven’t given a review :-) What a pity :-)
Kilmainham Gaol is another great place to visit while in Dublin because you can feel the real stuff, as it is a real former prison and there are some important, well known people from the Irish history who died here executed by soldiers.
I went there on the day that OPW opens for free their amenities so I didn’t pay any cents. You have to stand in queue at the front of the entrance to wait for the guided tour (so come in early to not wait too long outside), then you go to the desk to pay the entrance fee and you are brought to a sort of museum where you can start documenting yourself about facts, dates, people involved in the Gaol (prison in Irish).
After a while a guide arrives, introduce himself and opens a gate to the court outside, so the guided tour to the prison starts. You can actually come in some cells and breath and feel how was to live there as prisoners.
The only thing I didn’t like was to find unpolite tourists from different nationalities who didn’t care too much about the visit, nor the guided tour so start talking instead of listening the guide. In my opinion they should be kicked outside the premises :-)
Apart from that it is really great historic spot, and I would advise to everybody!

Fue una visita muy interesante. Lo único que me faltó fueron guías que hablaran en otros idiomas ya que me enteré de muy pocas cosas por mi bajo nivel de inglés.
Te cuentan la historia muy amenamente aunque se hace un poco pesado lo de esperar fuera la cola ya que es obligatorio ir en grupos con guía.
Impresionan algunas de sus historias, entristece y lo bueno es que dejan un poco de libertad una vez dentro para entrar en las celdas y hacer fotos.

In Dublin it is hard to compete with the FREE museums around town but the tour is worth every Euro. The guide told great stories and showed us historic locations and provided personal details in the stories she shared. You can tell the staff take pride in their work and country.
The unfortunate part is you have to wait for a tour time. We heard this so we arrived before 10 am and got right in. Go early and it will be perfect. It takes about an hour for the detailed guided tour and then another hour or so for the museum. But they do allow for you to visit the museum while you wait for your assigned tour time.
Visit the park and hospital across the street after for a nice afternoon walk. It is now an art museum and we did not go inside (closed Mondays) but it was a pleasant walk around the old hospital and gardens… free.

La prison de Kilmainham est un incontournable à visiter lors d’un séjour à Dublin. C’est un lieu historique très important pour les Irlandais.
La visite guidée est obligatoire, il n’est donc pas possible de se promener seul dans la prison (d’ailleurs, on risquerait de se perdre, d’après la guide). Pour 6 euros, nous avons donc une visite d’une heure, en anglais, qui raconte toute l’histoire de cette prison bâtie sur le modèle du panoptique.
Il est vrai que je n’ai pas tout compris aux explications, surtout avec l’accent irlandais et la vitesse de parole de notre guide. Mais j’ai trouvé cette visite très agréable, avec du temps pour bien observer en détail les cellules, et prendre quelques photos.

Visita obligada si queréis saber anécdotas sobre uno de los periodos más importantes de la historia Irlandesa. Las visitas y los guías suelen variar continuamente. Recomendable ver «En el nombre del padre» antes de visitarla!

Das Kilmainham Gaol ist auf jeden Fall ein Besuch wert. Hier wird einem auf der einen Seite sehr schön gezeigt wie sich der Strafvollzug im laufe der Zeit verändert hat und man kann einiges über die irische Geschichte erfahren. Allerdings muss ich sagen, wenn ich nicht am Tag vorher eine sehr ausführliche Tour durch Dublin mitgemacht hätte, hätte ich einige Informationen die ich bei der Führung durch Kilmainham bekommen habe nicht einordnen können. Die Führung ist auf Englisch, dem man aber auch als nicht native speaker sehr gut folgen kann. Das Kilmainham Gaol ist sehr gut mit dem Dublin Bus vom City Centre aus zu erreichen. Mein Tipp: Immer genung Kleingeld für den Bus haben.