Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Ireland / Straffan / Barberstown Castle
Barberstown Castle
Straffan, County Kildare, Ireland · Independent · Accessible Luxury
Barberstown Castle's keep went up in 1288 as a fort on the English Pale around Dublin. Wine merchant Hugh Barton added a nineteenth-century wing; Eric Clapton owned the castle from 1979 to 1987 and kept the Green Room and Castle Keep loud after midnight. It opened as a guesthouse in 1971, one of the first Irish country houses to take overnight guests, and now holds 61 bedrooms in Straffan's horse country.
- 61 rooms
- Opened 1971
- Neighborhood: Co. Kildare
About Barberstown Castle
- The castle has passed through 37 documented owners across seven centuries, layering a sixteenth-century Elizabethan house onto the medieval keep.
- It sits on 20-acre grounds 1.6 km from Straffan; Ireland's Blue Book lists the house among historic Irish country hotels.
- Historic Hotels Worldwide carries the membership; live music still fills the Victorian and Elizabethan dining rooms on weekends.
History
Barberstown Castle in Straffan, County Kildare, is one of Ireland’s more layered country-house hotels, with a story that reaches back to a medieval castle keep dated to 1288. The property’s present appearance reflects centuries of change rather than a single building campaign: its original medieval core has been joined by Victorian and Elizabethan extensions, creating the patchwork silhouette that survives today. According to the hotel, it opened as a small guesthouse in 1971, helping to turn a private historic residence into one of the first great Irish country houses to welcome the public on an overnight basis.
The castle’s modern cultural chapter is unusually vivid. Barberstown says it was home to Eric Clapton from 1979 to 1987, and that famous rock musicians stayed there and played into the early hours in the Green Room and Castle Keep. That mix of medieval fabric and late-20th-century rock-and-roll lore gives the hotel a profile that is rare even among Ireland’s castle stays.
Today Barberstown is privately owned and managed, and the hotel describes a careful upgrade from a 10-bedroom property to a 61-bedroom Failte Ireland approved hotel. It is also a member of Ireland’s Blue Book, placing it within a network of notable Irish historic houses and country hotels. The result is a property whose appeal rests as much on documented continuity as on reinvention: a 13th-century castle adapted for contemporary hospitality without losing the traces of its long architectural history.
The setting
Barberstown Castle rises from the plains of north County Kildare in Straffan, its medieval tower keep built in 1288 as a fortification of the English Pale around Dublin. The castle has passed through 37 documented owners across seven centuries, layering a 16th-century Elizabethan house and a 19th-century wing added by wine merchant Hugh Barton atop the original keep. Rock musician Eric Clapton owned the castle from 1979 to 1987. Straffan lies in Kildare's horse-racing heartland near the River Liffey, a renowned luxury castle estate just two kilometres distant, making this a confirmed high-end country enclave. Castletown House is accessible within 42 minutes, and Dublin city lies 30 minutes by road. 2.3 km from Straffan Butterfly Farm. 5.8 km from Celbridge.
Restaurants and bars
- The Haggard — Restaurant
- Castle Keep — Restaurant · Chef Pablo Bernardo (Executive Head Chef)
Amenities
- Pet-friendly
Open Barberstown Castle in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.