Powerscourt House & Gardens
About 2km around the full garden circuit ·
About
Powerscourt is the reason Enniskerry exists in its present form, and it is a twenty-minute walk uphill from the Square. The Palladian house was rebuilt out of a 13th-century castle by the German architect Richard Cassels between 1731 and 1741; the 47 acres of gardens below it were the twenty-year project of the 7th Viscount, finished around 1880, and they descend from the house in a sequence of Italian terraces to Triton Lake with the Great Sugar Loaf sitting behind it like a stage flat. The set pieces are the terraces and the pebble-mosaic viewing platform, the Japanese Gardens laid out on reclaimed bogland in 1908, the Walled Garden, the Pepperpot Tower in Tower Valley and the pet cemetery. The house itself burned out in a fire on 4 November 1974 and only a small part of it has been returned to how it looked when the family lived here; the rest of the ground floor is now Avoca, shops and a cafe, all of which are free to enter. What you pay for is the garden. Allow a couple of hours for the full 2km circuit, and note before you plan anything that Powerscourt Waterfall is a completely separate site with a separate entrance and a separate ticket, 7km away by road.
Photos
Highlights
- ✓The Italian terraces and the pebble-mosaic viewing platform, with Triton Lake and the Great Sugar Loaf beyond
- ✓The Japanese Gardens, laid out on reclaimed bogland in 1908 in concentric paths
- ✓The Walled Garden, one of the oldest parts of the estate, and the Bamberg Gate
- ✓The Pepperpot Tower in Tower Valley, modelled on a pepper pot from the family dining table
- ✓The pet cemetery, and Ireland's tallest tree, a Douglas fir, on the estate
Tips
- →The gardens ticket does NOT cover Powerscourt Waterfall. They are separate sites, separate entrances, separate tickets, and 7km apart by road.
- →Avoca, the shops and the courtyard at the house are free to enter; you only pay to go through into the gardens.
- →It is about 2km uphill from the Square, roughly a twenty-minute walk, and the last stretch is on a road without a continuous footpath in places.
- →Adult admission was around €14 at the time of writing, with reductions for seniors, students and children. Check current prices on the estate site before you go.
- →The terraces involve long flights of steps. The upper terrace, the courtyard and the house-level paths are the accessible part.
Best Season
Accessibility
The house courtyard, shops, cafe and the upper terrace level are accessible, with disabled parking and a drop-off point at the house. The descent through the Italian terraces to Triton Lake is by long flights of steps and is not wheelchair accessible. Wheelchairs can be requested in advance from Powerscourt House.
Last verified 2026-08-06
More Attraction Activities
Powerscourt Waterfall
Ireland's highest waterfall at 121 metres, in a parkland meadow with picnic tables, a playground and barbecue stands. A separate site and a separate ticket from the gardens.
The Square and the Clock Tower
The triangular estate-village square, ringed by mock-Tudor terraces and pivoting on an 1843 granite clock tower with an 1860 copper cupola.
Glencree German War Cemetery
A quiet terraced cemetery built into a granite quarry in 1961, holding 134 German war dead, ten kilometres up the Glencree valley from the village.