Irish National Stud

Es el establo nacional de Irlanda. Contiene una gran variedad de especies de caballos que participan en diversas carreras y que viven felices en medio de la naturaleza.
Lo mejor es el lugar en sí, lleno de lugares donde pastar, amplios paseos con diferentes rutas, con un mapa puedes seguir la que más te interese. Es una excursión bonita de ver si vas con niños, por ejemplo. En mi caso, fue un paseo agradable pero al haber tan poquitos caballos en esa época del año o ese día, porque realmente no sabía si estaban compitiendo, descansando o en otros establos, pues no vi más que 7 u 8 caballos en total y alguna vaca.
Fuentes, jardines, pastos, cuadras, naturaleza y distintas especies de equinos es lo que vas a encontrar allí. Es visita obligada junto con los jardines japoneses y cuando te canses, puedes tomar algo en la cafetería.
Ah, y tienen visitas guiadas en Inglés por si te resulta más cómodo ir con alguien que por tu cuenta.

Again another place I’d been meaning to visit since my childhood.
It was everything I thought it would be and more.
I finally got to meet Arkle, or what’s left of him anyway. His skeletal frame looks very impressive.
The stallions, while wrapped up in their rugs, looked awesome in their own individual paddocks. Some were relaxed and grazing, others were being all entire-​like and acting the colt.
Next up we found paddocks with mares and foals. One pair obliged and came over for a chat. The foal really appreciated his back scratched. A French speaking family were delighted they got to say hello to the foal too.
Finally I got to see Moscow Flyer, Beef or Salmon and Hardy Eustace. Retired racing legends. Alas the were too interest in the green stuff for a chat. But still awesome.
The whole stud is well presented and kept spotless. I was so impressed with the whole setup. I really enjoyed my visit here at The Irish National stud.
A must visit if you are in the vicinity.

Horses… need I say more!!! How can the Irish National Stud not have 5 stars!!! Our guide Steve was engaging & friendly, with interesting tidbits of information on past (and present) stallions at stud and their mates. Beautiful grounds, lovely paddocks and pasture… and even a couple of young colts/​fillies to pet.
Well-​stocked gift shop, and a lovely café if one is so inclined for a nosh. We did not have time for the Japanese Gardens, but the grounds of the Stud Farm were quite lovely in their own right. The museum was quite interesting also!
Highly recommend a visit!

Grate to place to visit when weather is great. Well, in Irish terms it means, when it’s not raining, hehe :)
You have to come here with a mind set for slow, «take-​take-​your-​time» kinda walk around atitude. There’re few different routes you can take. Enjoy the nature.
During guided tour you will here a lot of interesting facts and some history and stats.
Not all horses will be there, as they might be in a race or sold etc.
I think there’s Japanese Gardens somewhere near, so you check that as well.

I came here for the Japanese Gardens but I stayed for St. Fiachra, and the horses. The Japanese Gardens, while lovely, are quite cramped, and as this place gets very busy at the weekends, especially if the weather is at all pleasant, there always seemed to be a screaming child in my ear. I had been expecting a far more relaxed, zen-​like atmosphere. I did however get something of that in St. Fiachra Gardens. It’s opposite where the horses graze so there is an amazing sense of space and the beautiful water features, replicas of monastic ruins, lazily swimming ducks and swans and the sheer number of light-​obliterating trees made it a very serene place to have a stroll or a nice little sit.
There is a guided tour of the National Stud if you wish, and a horse museum. The restaurant surprised me by doing a nice range of tasty salads as well as the usual lunchtime fare of sandwiches, a couple of hot meals, soups and scones. Their coffee isn’t terrible either, which is a bonus. I would definitely recommend getting here early. There is plenty to see, a lot of walking to be done, and it’s best done at a leisurely pace. The entrance fee of € 12.50 per adult I felt was well worth our long afternoon’s entertainment. They do have concession prices too and family discounts.

What more can I say about the magnificant Japanese Gardens! We made (what I thought) was an impromptu stop during our Ireland vacation. Little did I know, I would be an engaged woman before we finished our stroll through these amazing gardens!
This is an interpretation of a man’s journey through life, appropriately named: «Life of Man» We were lucky enough to venture through without other visitors around and it just felt like a perfect piece of paradise! The trails lead through the important ‘stages of life’, passing through ponds, waterfalls and rock structures.
There at the ‘Engagement Bridge’ (True to it’s name) my husband knelt down on bended knee and proposed to me. He said he wanted to share the rest of his journey through life with me!
The Century old gardens are truly simplistic in nature and just gorgeous, but carried a very though provoking idealogy. The grounds are immaculately manicured and the peacefulness was wonderful. The tea house and the «Bridge of Happiness» is a sight to see! It’s a great place to escape the busy day to day life.
Sure, I am COMPLETELY bias, however everyone will be able to take something away from their visit, (even if you don’t get engaged there:)
This is a definate must see to anyone that is in the area.
You + Nature, no disruptions, or distractions= Zenful Bliss!
After all, it was voted the Best Japanese Garden in Europe, for good reason!

What a beautiful little place this is!
Stunning scenery. It’s really amazing to see some of the wonders this place has to show for itself, and the size of some of the trees! They are minute!
The garden is laid out in a manor to bring you through each stage of life, start off when you were born… right through until the end. It’s very pretty and well worth a look! Mini streams, stepping stones and bridges, sheer heaven to any gardener!

My Ratings:
Quantity: 5 — Lots to see
Quality: 5 — Nice tour
Price: 4 — Good for a short tour
Location: 5 — Gorgeous place
Service: 4 — Good
Overall: One of the things to see in Dublin.
My Opinion/​Story:
I enjoyed my tour here not only because the place is beautiful but because I’m with awesome company. There are so many beautiful spot for pictures and the place is so big that most of our time was spent in the Japanese Garden.
We got to see the horses and they are all so beautiful. The land is vast and well-​kept. So many walking trails that by the end of the day, we were so tired.
The garden is stunning. I love the little hills, little ponds, little riverwalk around the garden. You definitely won’t get bored with the little surprises they have all around. I love the cave and their tea house. It’s a beautiful place and everything was green.

Myself and the clan popped over for what was a great day last week.
The gardens are well nice, if not a little confusing as to the proper route to follow, but this just added to the fun.
We ate on the terrace in the café before we headed off into the gardens and let me say, this was an experience that I really hope to have again soon, I had the Irish stew, herself had the chicken and mushroom pie (I use the term loosely as it came in a bowl with out pastry of any kind, I can never understand how someone can call anything other than a filling encased in pastry to be a pie, if it has a lid on top of a bowl, isn’t it just an upside down vol au vent?) and the wee man had the soup.
Who ever cooked this food definitely knows what they are doing, the food was fabulous, so full of flavour and plenty of it. I had a salad and roast baby potatoes with my stew, both of which were perfect, herself opted for boiled rice and the wee man had a load of homemade brown bread all this plus drinks for € 32 was pretty good value.
As I said to herself, «sure its a pity that the café isn’t the other side of the pay desk as I would gladly pop back in here for the grub alone» and she agreed.
If you are down that neck of the woods, I would highly recommend that you pop in for the grub and some pretty impressive gardens.

Awesome Japanese garden on the the grounds of the national stud in Kildare, not far from Kildare Village if you are down for a shopping trip or just passing through. The garden follows a path of life theme which is quite enjoyable (bridge of marriage, hill of ambition, path of disagreement) with a lovely red bridge over some of the water features and also a tea house. It’s the centenary this year, so well worth a visit and there are special events on; last weekend saw classes on sushi making on Saturday, ikebana (Japanese flower arranging, hopefully spelt correctly) and tea ceremony and kimono held over the weekend, although they are extra.
It would be nice if the garden was a little bigger but the layout makes it seem much larger than it is.
Entry is € 11 adult, € 8 for seniors or students but this also includes the National stud and St. Fiachra’s garden and there are also family tickets.

About an hour’s drive west of Dublin is the National Irish Stud. It’s really worth a day trip, especially if you like horses or if you want to impress your city kids. A ticket for adults is 11 euros. With that you will also get admission to the Japanese Garden. This is also very nice. Go in late Spring to see the most beautiful flowers.
They have a decent canteen/​restaurant where you can have Paninis, Root Beer and some cake. It was good food and the staff was friendly. Only their Italian language skills (displayed on their menu) show areas of improvement: «Pininis with Motzerella and Parmazane» is just a brutal butchering of a fragile language.
For me visiting the Irish Stud was also a trip back to my childhood when I spent whole summers on a stud back in Germany where my aunt used to work. Good times!

This was a great little detour that we took on our drive back to Dublin from Cashel. While we probably weren’t there during the peak season for the gardens (not much was in bloom), it was still a really interesting little walk through ‘life.’
Don’t miss the National Stud while you’re there as well– it was wonderful to walk around and pet the mares and then view the beautiful racing stallions in their paddocks.

This place is just a tiny patch of heaven. You really do feel like you are in Japan! I love the red wooden bridge. It dates back to the start of the 20^th century and was, ‘devised by Colonel William Hall-​Walker (later Lord Wavertree), a wealthy Scotsman of a famous brewery family and laid out by the Japanese Eida and his son Minoru.‘
They are on the grounds of the Irish National Stud and are reputed to be the best Japanese gardens in the west or as they put it, ‘when East meets West.‘
The variety of plants to be found there are a horticulturalists dream. But for people with less knowledge of plants like me, I can confidently assert that it’s really pretty!