Dundonald Castle & Visitor Centre

31/10/2026

HOURS UPDATE 🕒

From Sunday 1st November, our new opening hours will be:

🕥 1030AM – 330PM

Thank you for your continued support!

We look forward to seeing you all! 😊

26/10/2026

Get ready for a monstrously good evening at Dundonald Castle this Halloween!

We're teaming up with Neon Skies to bring you a fun-filled family adventure packed with exciting challenges, creative activities, and plenty of spooky surprises. Collect your Monster Score Card on arrival and take on six fiendishly fun monster-inspired challenges. Complete them all, collect your stamps, and earn the title of Official Monster Mash Champion!

Perfect for families and children of all ages, this hands-on Halloween experience is designed to get everyone involved, creating magical memories and plenty of monster-sized fun in the unique surroundings of Dundonald Castle.

🎃 Complete six monster challenges
🎨 Enjoy hands-on Halloween activities
🏅 Earn your Monster Mash Champion status
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Fun for the whole family

Tickets: £7 per person | all attendees require a ticket (adults encouraged to take part!) | available on our website or via the event page
Timed entry slots: Available every 15 minutes
Booking: Advance booking required

Spaces are limited, so be sure to secure your place and join us for a frightfully fun Halloween adventure!

This event is supported by Destination South Ayrshire funding.

Halloween Monster Ball

24/10/2026

TEMPORARY CLOSURE NOTICE ⚠️

Due to the forecasted high winds, we will be closed on Sunday 25th October for the safety of our customers and staff.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your understanding.

We aim to reopen as usual at 10am on Monday 26th October.

Thank you for your patience and stay safe! 💨

23/10/2026

Yesterday was a day full of games, fun and community spirit at Dundonald Castle Community Hub! 🥰

We kicked off the day with a games morning at our Back In Time group, followed by a fantastic Cupcake Party in the afternoon, which raised an amazing £300+! 🧁🎉

A huge thank you to everyone who came along, joined in the fun and supported us. We hope you had as much fun as we did! 🏰❤️

21/10/2026

Friends of Dundonald Castle SCIO is looking for an experienced and enthusiastic Café Manager to lead our welcoming Visitor Centre/Community Hub Café and help drive its continued growth and success. Based within our busy Community Hub, this is an exciting opportunity to combine hospitality leadership with community engagement and visitor experience ☕

The role will include:

- Leading and developing a team of staff and volunteers
- Delivering outstanding customer service and visitor experiences
- Overseeing day-to-day café operations
- Developing menus and working with local suppliers
- Managing budgets, stock and compliance
- Supporting community activities and events

We're looking for someone who:

• Has significant hospitality experience
• Has experience managing or supervising a team
• Is passionate about customer service
• Is organised, proactive and able to manage multiple priorities
• Can lead on food safety, compliance and operational standards

📍 Dundonald Castle Visitor Centre
⏰ Part-time hours
📅 Flexibility required, including occasional evenings and weekends
📧 Apply by sending your CV and covering letter to [email protected]

Closing date is 15/11/2026

Join us and play a key role in one of Ayrshire's most unique heritage and community destinations 🏰

20/10/2026

A HUGE THANK YOU TO DARLEY HOUSE!

We were absolutely delighted to visit Marr College recently and say a very big thank you to the wonderful pupils of Darley House, who have chosen Friends of Dundonald Castle SCIO as one of their House Charities this year!

We are incredibly grateful for their support and for all the enthusiasm they are putting into fundraising for us.

Every penny raised will help support the work we do here at Dundonald Castle Visitor Centre & Community Hub, helping us continue to provide a welcoming space for our community, run activities and groups, support health and wellbeing, develop local partnerships and make a positive difference to people of all ages.

It means such a lot to have young people in our local community choosing to support us, and we can’t wait to cheer Darley House on with their fundraising throughout the year!

Thank you, Darley Dragons, you’re all castle superstars! 🏰❤️

🎉 Marr College Community Fundraising Update 🎉
We are delighted to share that Marr College has raised an amazing £1,495 so far for Friends of Dundonald Castle through our 5km Sponsored Walk, along with Open Mic and Face Painting fundraising activities!
A huge thank you to all our pupils, families, staff and supporters who have contributed. The funds raised will help support the Community Hub at the heart of Dundonald, providing opportunities, activities and events that bring people of all ages together. Thank you to Dr Croll and Mrs Hardman for visiting our School Captains this morning.
Our goal is to reach £2,000 by the end of the school year, and we'd love your support to help us get there!
💙 If you would like to donate, please visit our JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/page/marr-college-37-darleydragons?utm_medium=FA&utm_source=CL
Thank you for helping us make a positive difference in our local community.
Marr College's Darley Dragon's fundraiser for Friends of Dundonald Castle SCIO
Help Marr College raise money to support Friends of Dundonald Castle SCIO

20/10/2026

This is going to be great fun....Slime making session...games...and face-painting all included.

Booking link in comments 👇💚

18/10/2026

Dig Dundonald Final Day and Update! ⚒️

It’s been a busy six days here at Dundonald Castle for our 2026 community excavations!

We were joined by 47 amazing volunteers over the six days and have achieved a huge amount.

One of our trenches has revealed what we believe to be a medieval workshop, where items were being made from metal, ceramic and possibly glass. We’ve recovered a large amount of metalworking waste, along with some lovely pottery fragments, many featuring a green glaze🏺

Located outside the castle’s main walls, this workshop suggests that activity extended beyond the castle itself, with the hillside being used for the production of everyday items and potentially other purposes too.

A massive thank you to Historic Environment Scotland and AOC Archaeology Group for supporting this project, and to all our wonderful volunteers for their hard work, enthusiasm and dedication throughout the week 🙌

Hopefully, we’ll get the chance to do it all again soon!

16/10/2026

We still have a few spaces left for our Tai Chi session at Dundonald Castle tomorrow morning (Sat 17th Oct).

Join us for the perfect way to start your weekend. Beginners welcome 🧘‍♀️

Tai Chi at Dundonald Castle

16/10/2026

For this month's Dundonald Historical and Archive Group talk we were joined by Bill McKinlay for the wonderful talk on the Alloway Tunnel Project . Thank you again to our speaker and to everyone who joined us on the night!

Our next talk will be on Wed 11th Nov and we will be joined by Alasdair McFarlane as he tells us about his latest High Atlas Adventure ⛰️