merrion street

Mr. Brian Hayes, TD, Minister of State with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW) today (22 January 2014) congratulated his staff on another very successful year. Visitors to OPW Heritage sites where a guide service operates for the benefit of visitors were in excess of 4.1million in 2013. The top fee paying sites continued to do well with Kilmainham Gaol bringing in approx 326,200 visitors, an increase of nearly 5% on the previous year, while the Rock of Cashel showed a similar increase of just over 6%.

Visitor numbers take into account not just the ticketed visitors but also admissions to various events and also in some cases those people availing of the grounds/parklands of a site where such visitors can now be counted. In 2013 it was noticed that sites with large grounds/gardens attracted more visitors during the summer months due to the long spell of great weather. Farmleigh Estate reported visitors to the grounds and the house of approx 435,500 while Castletown House and Parklands had approx 244,400 visitors and the National Botanic Gardens had over 550,000 visitors through its gates. Outside of Dublin, Kilkenny Castle welcomed record-breaking numbers in 2013, with 241,302 visitors to the Castle and its grounds.

Dublin Castle also did extremely well with visitors despite being closed to the public for nearly half the year while hosting the EU Presidency. The Castle had in excess of 103,000 visitors for the half year, compared to approx 157,000 for the full year in 2012. This was in a large part due to those major events held in 2013 such as the Bram Stoker Festival in November and various successful Christmas Events, as well as the introduction of the option to self guide which was brought on stream in Dublin Castle in October.

Speaking at the publication of the 2013 visitor numbers, Minister Hayes said, “I’m very proud of each and every one of the heritage sites in the care of the OPW. My staff work extremely hard to ensure that all visitors to our sites are met with professionalism and quality at every turn. The figures released today clearly show that OPW’s investment in our national heritage is reaping dividends with the welcome increases in visitor numbers. Indeed recently, eight of OPW’s sites were awarded Silver Merit Awards of Excellence for 2013, in recognition of that investment in standards and pursuit of excellence. The tourism industry has a pivotal role in the continuing national recovery and in addition aids job creation and growth in all parts of the country. Today’s very positive figures are evidence of the role OPW is playing in that recovery and will continue to do so in 2014.”