11% jump in national heritage site visits

Visitor numbers to national heritage sites rose 11% last year to more than 4.9m.

Figures provided by the Office of Public Works, which has responsibility for the maintenance of such sites, shows they recorded almost 500,000 additional tourists during 2015. A total of 4,921,965 visits were recorded at the 72 sites. Income at the OPW sites from entrance fees, publications and heritage card sales also rose 19% to more than €9.4m.

More than a quarter of all OPW heritage sites are free to visit including Áras an Uachtaráin, Farmleigh Estate, and Skellig Michael.