Several Irish pubs claim to be the oldest in the country, and the claims cannot all be true. The usual problem is that a pub's founding date belongs to the site, or to a story about the site, while the building standing there now is much younger. Below, each claim is set beside what the building surveys and the written records actually show.
The claim. Established about AD 900, the oldest pub in Ireland. In 2004 Guinness World Records issued it a certificate as the “oldest pub in Ireland”.
What the evidence supports. The Record of Monuments and Places and the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage date the building to the 17th or 18th century; the NIAH puts it at about 1725, “possibly containing the fabric of earlier buildings”. A 1738 rental survey calls it the “Three Blackamoor Heads”. A wattle wall found in the 1970s may be 17th-century but is not securely dated, and a late-medieval fireplace on the premises came from a house on an island in Lough Ree. No document for a pub here in 900 has been published. Claim unproven
The claim. Established in 1198. The pub's own website says so, and the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage's appraisal repeats that there has been a public house and hotel on the site since 1198.
What the evidence supports. The present building is a coaching inn of about 1754–55, with a front block of about 1820 (NIAH). A “Brazen Head” on Bridge Street is first recorded in 1613, though that reference only survives in a writ of 1700; it was licensed to sell ale in 1661 and first called an inn in 1668. Excavation next door in 1989 found 13th-century land reclamation, but not a tavern. We have found no 12th-century document naming a pub here. Site medieval; pub from the 1600s
The Brazen Head — Wikipedia ↗ · The Brazen Head — National Inventory of Architectural Heritage ↗ · The Brazen Head (the pub's own site, for the 1198 claim) ↗
The claim. “Est. 1324” on the pub's own website, the year Dame Alice Kyteler was prosecuted for sorcery by Richard de Ledrede, bishop of Ossory.
What the evidence supports. Parts of the building date to the 13th or 14th century, and the archaeologist Conleth Manning thought its groin-vaulted undercroft made a 14th-century date plausible. But it is debated whether the Kyteler family lived at this exact spot, and the building is recorded as an inn only from 1639. 1324 is the date of the witchcraft case, not of a licence. Medieval building; inn from 1639
Kyteler's Inn — Wikipedia ↗ · Alice Kyteler — Wikipedia ↗ · Kyteler's Inn (the pub's own site, for the 1324 claim) ↗
The claim. Opened in 1611 as the King's Arms; it says it is “considered to be one of Ireland's oldest pubs”, and is said to hold the oldest known pub deeds in Ireland.
What the evidence supports. The 1611 date and the deeds are reported by the pub and by IrishCentral; we have not seen the deeds themselves. Grace Neill, who by family tradition was given the pub as a wedding present, ran it until her death in 1916, and it was renamed after her. The visits by Peter the Great, John Keats and Daniel Defoe are “said to” have happened; there is no record cited for them. Plausible, not independently checked
The claim. Not a claim to be the oldest: its fame is that it is one of the finest surviving Victorian gin palaces.
What the evidence supports. Opened as the Railway Tavern, it was renamed and refitted in 1885. The National Trust bought it in 1978, after a campaign that included John Betjeman, restored it in 1981 and again in 2007, and owns it now; it is leased to a pub operator. The tiles, stained glass, carved snugs and gas lighting are described on the National Trust's own page. Owned by the National Trust
Crown Liquor Saloon — Wikipedia ↗ · The Crown Bar — National Trust ↗
The claim. Often listed among Ireland's best-preserved old pubs, but it makes no “oldest” claim that we have been able to source.
What the evidence supports. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage records it as a terraced three-bay two-storey house of about 1890, built as a public house and still one, with a group of outbuildings of about 1860 behind it, rated of regional importance. That is all we can confirm; we have no published history of the interior to link. Victorian; little published
Morrissey, Main Street, Abbeyleix — National Inventory of Architectural Heritage ↗
Nobody can say for certain. Sean's Bar in Athlone claims about AD 900 and holds a 2004 Guinness World Records certificate, but building surveys date the present building to about 1725. The Brazen Head in Dublin claims 1198; its building is of about 1754 and the pub is first recorded in the 1600s. Grace Neill's in Donaghadee claims 1611 and is said to hold the oldest pub deeds.
The site may be that old, but the pub is not proven to be. The building dates from about 1754, a Brazen Head on Bridge Street is first recorded in 1613 (in a writ of 1700), and it was licensed to sell ale in 1661. No 12th-century record of a tavern there has been published.
1324 is the year Dame Alice Kyteler was prosecuted for sorcery in Kilkenny. The building has 13th- or 14th-century parts, but it is recorded as an inn only from 1639, and it is debated whether the Kytelers lived on this exact spot.
The National Trust, which bought it in 1978 and has restored it twice. It is leased to a pub operator, which runs it.
This page lists claims; it does not endorse any pub. Have a deed, a licence record or a survey that settles one of these? Tell us.