About Hillsborough Castle

Hillsborough Castle, in the small Georgian town of Royal Hillsborough in County Down, is the official Northern Ireland residence of the British monarch and of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. It is not a castle in any defensive sense — it is a Georgian country house, built in the late 18th century for the Hill family, Marquesses of Downshire, and named in continuity with an older fort that once stood on the site.

The British government bought the house from the Hill family in 1922 and it has served the Crown ever since — first as the residence of the Governor of Northern Ireland from 1925 to 1973, then as the residence of the Secretary of State, then in its current shared role as both the royal residence and the working state house. Royal visits, state dinners and political summits all happen here. The Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed in the Throne Room in 1985.

Since 2014, the house and its hundred-acre garden have been in the care of Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that also looks after the Tower of London and Hampton Court. After a major five-year restoration, the state rooms reopened to the public in 2019, and the gardens have been progressively opened up since.

The gardens are the heart of the visit. They run across roughly a hundred acres and contain at least three distinct landscape ideas. The formal Granville Garden, with its parterres and yew hedges, sits closest to the house. Lady Alice's Temple, a small classical pavilion given as a wedding gift in 1867, anchors the wooded walks and the views down to the lake. The four-acre walled kitchen garden, dating from the 18th century, has been brought back into productive use as a working garden with orchard, dipping pond and seasonal beds. Around them are pinetums, lime walks and the wild woodland.

The house is open by guided tour only and not every day; the gardens are open more broadly. The Castle is occasionally closed at short notice for royal or government use — check the Historic Royal Palaces site before you travel.

Essential information

Location

The Square, Royal Hillsborough, BT26 6AG. In the centre of Hillsborough village, on the A1 between Belfast and Newry.

Open

Gardens: Wednesday–Sunday in season (closed January). House: by guided tour on selected days. Check hrp.org.uk for current schedule.

Admission

Adult, child and family tickets. Gardens-only and house-and-gardens options. Members of Historic Royal Palaces enter free.

Duration

Allow 2–3 hours for the gardens alone, 4 hours including a house tour.

Pair with

Hillsborough Forest Park, Lisburn Linen Museum, Belfast (20 min by train)

What you'll see

The state rooms

Including the Throne Room, the State Drawing Room and the State Dining Room. Restored furniture, royal portraits, the room where the Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed.

The Granville Garden

The formal yew-hedged garden directly outside the south front of the house. Designed for slow looking.

The Walled Garden

Four acres of working kitchen garden — orchards, beds, glasshouses, a dipping pond. Restored under Historic Royal Palaces' tenure.

Lady Alice's Temple

A small classical pavilion of 1867, given as a wedding gift to Lady Alice Hill. Sits at the meeting point of three formal walks — yew, lime and moss.

The lake & pinetum

A 19th-century ornamental lake with a small pinetum of mature specimen conifers around it. The Moss Walk drops down through the woodland to it.

The State Entrance gates

The ornamental ironwork gates between the village square and the castle drive. 18th-century, by Lisburn's Thornberry foundry. The royal arrival route.

Practical tips

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Getting there

Twenty minutes from central Belfast on the A1 / M1. Hillsborough has a train station (Lisburn line). On-site parking.

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Check before going

Closures happen at short notice when the house is in royal or government use. The HRP website is updated daily.

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House tours

Timed guided tours of the interior only — book online in advance for the day and time you want.

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Best time

Late April–June for bluebells on the Lime Tree Walk and rhododendrons. Late summer for the productive walled garden at its peak.

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Dogs

Welcome on leads in the gardens. Not inside the castle. Hillsborough Forest Park next door is more dog-friendly for a longer walk.

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Refreshments

Café on site. Hillsborough village itself has the Plough, Parson's Nose and Yellow Door for proper meals five minutes away.

A wider trip

Hillsborough is one of the easiest day trips out of Belfast — close, beautiful, and easy on the timetable. Pair the castle with the adjoining Hillsborough Forest Park for a longer walk, or push on south for half a day in the Mourne Mountains.

For a fuller County Down route from Belfast down to the Mournes, see the County Down coastal route guide in the journal.

Photo Credits

Photo by Slowtech2000, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Full credits on the attributions page.