Full Day Tour - Castletown House and

National Stud and Japanese Gardens

TOUR DURATION: 8.30 Hours

TOUR TIMING:
» 0900 -  Drive via the City to Co. Kildare
» 1100-1230  Visit the Irish National Stud and Japanese Gardens
» 1245-1345  Lunch - Self service at the Stud or an arranged lunch
» 1345-1445  Drive to Castletown House Celbridge
» 1500-1630  Visit to Castletown House
» 1630-1730 Drive back to Dublin

TOUR DESCRIPTION:

This full day tour includes visits to the Japanese Gardens, Irish National Stud and Castletown House. This tour will give you an insight to life of a different era and time. The tour has a relaxing pace offering a glimpse of contrasting lifestyles. Begin your tour viewing the centre of Dublin continuing southwest through satellite towns and onto the rich agricultural farmlands of County Kildare and through the Curragh. The Curragh is Ireland’s premier horse racing venue and the scene of many an exciting race. It is the headquarters of Irish racing and of all five Irish Classic races; The Coolmore Irish 2,000 Guineas, Goffs Irish 1,000 Guineas, Budweiser Irish Derby, Kildangan Stud Irish Oaks and the Jefferson Smurfit Memorial Irish St. Leger.

Visit the Irish National Stud and Japanese Gardens. Situated in the grounds of the Irish National Stud the gardens were established between 1906 and 1910 by Lord Wavertree and laid out by his Japanese gardener, Tasa Eida.They have been carefully preserved as one of the gems of Ireland’s heritage. The gardens symbolize the “Life of Man” so that the visitor may walk the paths of life from cradle to grave.

The farm at Tully, Kildare, which is the home of the Irish National Stud, was the brainchild of Colonel William Hall-Walker, a Scotsman in 1900. He decided, much against the wishes of his father, to breed thoroughbred horses at Tully.Hall-Walker’s views on breeding have been described as inspired, preposterous and eccentric. The ten stallion boxes with their distinctive lantern roofs stand as proof of his highly successful, extraordinary policies on breeding and management. In 1945 the Irish National Stud Company was formed. Its primary aim was to promote the interests of the Irish bloodstock industry with a view to improving quality of bloodstock in Ireland by providing the services of the high-class stallions on the farm. The Stud at Tully consists of 958 acres of land providing the farm with 288 boxes for the accommodation of mares, foals and stallions.

The museum on site serves as a historical archive of the Stud farm’s successes and evolution of the Irish horse with historical memorabilia and artefacts associated with the Irish Horse Industry. There is the skeleton of Arkle who was Ireland’s world famous steeple chaser.

Castletown House is a magnificent Palladian style mansion. It was built in 1722 for William Connolly, speaker of the Irish House of Commons and designed by an Italian architect. The interior contains some spectacular plasterwork, a long gallery painted and an 18th century print room. It was formerly the headquarters of the Irish Georgian Society, who restored the building and furnished it with Irish furniture and paintings of that period.