Irish National Stud and Japanese Gardens

State Owned Thoroughbred Stud Farm At Tully, Founded In 1900 And National Since 1946, With The Japanese Gardens (Laid Out 1906 1910), St Fiachra'S Garden And The Irish Horse Museum · Kildare, Kildare

The Irish National Stud at Tully, just outside Kildare town and about an hour south-west of Dublin, is a working, state-owned thoroughbred stud farm where champion stallions stand and mares foal each spring. It was founded in 1900 by Colonel William Hall Walker, a horse breeder said to have planned matings by the stars, passed to the British Crown in 1915 and has been Irish and national since the 1940s. He also laid out the Japanese Gardens between 1906 and 1910, with a Japanese gardener, Tassa Eida, and his son: a walk called the Path of Life, through the stages of a human life. People come for the guided stud tour, the foals in spring, the Irish Horse Museum with the skeleton of the great steeplechaser Arkle, the calm of the gardens and St Fiachra's Garden. It sits in the heart of Kildare's horse country, by the Curragh. The honest caveat: it closes for part of the winter, the horses are a business, not a petting farm, and the gardens are small.

Tully, about 2 km south-east of Kildare town, County Kildare, about 1 hour south-west of Dublin; Kildare Village outlet centre next door, Kildare, Kildare, Ireland

Open daily for most of the year, roughly early or mid-February to late December, from about 09:00 to 18:00 with last admission about an hour before closing; closed for a period in midwinter (confirm dates). Tickets can be bought online, usually a little cheaper, or at the door, and cover the stud tour, the gardens and the museum; groups book ahead. The guided stud tour runs several times a day (confirm times). By car: the M7 from Dublin, exit for Kildare and follow brown signs to Tully, about an hour. By train: Heuston to Kildare, then a taxi or a walk of about 2-3 km.

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