Plan your Visit
Your Visit
Plan Your Seal Rescue Visit
We are delighted you are interested in visiting! Please find below all the information you may need to plan your trip and take part in one of our award-winning tours or experiences!
We hope to Seal you soon!
To ensure a great visit, please make sure to:
Arrive Early
Arrive 10 minutes before your tour
or experience is due to start on
area we so you have time to check
in at reception.
Capturing
Charge your phones and cameras – the seal pups are adorable and you will be able to get close enough to take some amazing pictures!
Footwear
Wear appropriate footwear! Our pathways are covered with gravel and grass, so avoid heels to ensure your comfort and safety during your visit.
Rain coats
Bring a rain coat (the weather is changeable in Ireland and the majority of our facilities are outside)
Availability
If you select more seals than are currently available, we will send you adoption pack(s) when the next pups become available.
Opening Times
‘Seal-sonal’ Education Activity Availability
As a rescue centre, the number of seals in our care can vary depending on the season, weather events, and other factors. Once seals are healthy and ready, we release them back into the wild as soon as possible. The welfare of the seals in our care is always our top priority and this determines the educational activities that we make available to the public.
Come visit
Booking information and guidelines
- Advanced Booking Is Required. When booking online please note, due to the nature of our work – advance booking online is only possible 2 weeks in advance. This is to ensure the wellbeing of our seals, and our visitors satisfaction.
- All visitors under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. The 1 hour and 3 hour experiences are restricted to individuals 13 years of age and older, please read all information on our Tours pages thoroughly. Participants 13-18 years old must be accompanied by a participating guardian who also partakes in the experience. By making a booking, you confirm and agree that all participants meet the minimum age requirement of 13 years at the time of the experience. Any participant under the minimum age will not be permitted to participate, Seal Rescue Ireland reserves the right to deny access or any refunds if age requirements are not met.
- GroupBookings can be booked in advance via our office line:
Please remember when you visit, that we are first and foremost a hospital. The seals in our care may be sick, weak or injured.
Please make sure to follow the instructions of our tour guides, for the safety and welfare of our seal patients, and for your own safety! Children must be accompanied by an adult at all times.
Ticket Cost
30 Minute Guided
Educational Tour:
€10.00 for Adults
€8.00 for children 5-17
FREE for children under 5
Seal Feed and
Enrichment Experience:
€30.00 per participant *
* (Must be over 13 and participants under the age of 18 years must be accompanied by a participating adult)
Rescuer for a
Day Experience:
€90.00 per partecipant*
*(Must be over 13 and accompanied by a guardian)
We offer a 50% discount for people with disabilities, with carers admittance free of charge.
Bigger Groups
Group Booking
We offer group tours tailored to ensure an enriching experience for all participants while prioritizing the welfare of our seals. Contact us at 053 942 4980 or email education@sealrescueireland.org to arrange your group booking.
Seal Rescue Ireland
Getting here to us
Driving Directions
Driving From Dublin:
- Take the M11 towards Wexford
- Exit the M11 at Exit 23 on to the R732
- At the Roundabout take the 2nd Exit to Courtown
- In Courtown follow the main road to the town and then towards the harbour, turn right passing The Taravie Hotel and take another right and then an immediate left past Courtown Car Park and Park, continue upthis road following signs for Active Tribe, they are our neighbours. The Centreis located right beside the Active Tribe Swimming Pool
Driving From Wexford:
- Take the M11 towards Dublin or the R741 towards Gorey
- Exit the M11 at Exit 23 on to the R732 then at the Roundabout take the 2nd Exit to Courtown
- If coming from the R741 continue to Courtown directly
- In Courtown follow the main road to the town and then follow to the end of the road towards the harbour, turn right passing The Taravie Hotel and take another right and then an immediate left. This will take you past Courtown Car Park and Park, continue up this road following signs forActive Tribe, they are our neighbours. The Centre is located right beside the Active Tribe Swimming Pool.
Public Transport
From Dublin to Gorey
The Wexford Bus 740, 740A will bring you to Courtown and runs hourly from Leeson Street in Dubin.
From Gorey to Courtown.
From there you can get a taxi to our centre from one of the following local taxi services (about a5-10 minute drive).
Creah Cabs: 0871492217 / Gorey Cabs: 087950203
Seal FAQ’s
Visit us FAQ’s
-
What are your opening hours?
We are open most weekends, and holidays between 9.30am – 4pm. We open during the week when we can. Our opening times vary depending on the welfare of our seals in care, and the volume of seals on site.So, we advise that visitors check our website, or google, for available tours and opening times.
-
Where are you located?
We are based in Courtown Co. Wexford. Our Eircode is Y25 PD92.
Travelling by car is easy, you can find us after Exit 23 on the M11, then follow signs to Courtown. In Courtown we are located beside the Active Tribe Swimming pool near Courtown Harbour .
-
What are the costs of your tours?
- M30 Minute Guided Educational Tour: €10 for Adults and €8 for children under 5 (younger children under 5 are free).arketing
- Our Seal Feed and EnrichmentExperience: €30 Per Person
- Our Rescuer for the Day Experience: €90 Per person (Must be 13+ years of age to participate and those under 18 years must be accompanied by an adult. The fee for guardians supervising participants under 18 years that are not participating themselves, is €35.)
- We have reduced rates at 50% off for people with an intellectual disability and carers who accompany are free.
- For group rates for schools, community groups ,and larger visitor numbers, visit our schools & groups booking page
-
Why do the public pay for tours?
Touring with us means you are directly supporting the seal patients in our care! As a non profit we depend on the funding from tours, it is vital for the survival of our rescue and rehabilitation operation. Our Seal Rescue is getting busier and busier year to year. Not only are seals continuing to face threats, and injury, but awareness of our services has grown! Without public support, we would not be able to provide the vital rescue service, and rehabilitation care needed to bring rescue seals back to health, so they can have a second chance at life in the wild.
-
Why is advanced booking required?
Thank you for your interest in visiting our centre! Please read important information below:
We are primarily a Seal Rescue Centre-the health and welfare of the seals in our care is our first priority. Alongside our rescue and rehabilitation efforts we are always striving to maximise our impact in the work that we do. Educational programming at our centre carried out within careful parameters while maintaining a calm environment for the seal pups in care, is an effective way to further the goals of conservation. We want to ensure that we are doing all that we can to create a sustainable future for Ireland’s seals and all wildlife. Every pup in our care can help tell a story, illustrating first-hand the impact of water pollution, climate change, unsustainable fishing, habitat loss, and disturbance.
Booking is required for visits: as a rescue centre rehabilitating seal pups for return to the wild it is important that we carefully control the flow of visitors to our centre. We must always prioritize the welfare of the seals in our care and carefully assess their condition and behaviour prior to approving any visits. As such visit availability will vary depending on these factors in terms of the number of people allowed on site per day and the number of tour times available.
We are a working Rescue Centre, we are different from a Zoo or Sanctuary: we operate a busy rescue centre where our goal for every seal rescued is rehabilitation and release back to the wild. We have no permanent residents. Our visits are designed to help the public engage with the topics of marine conservation, sustainability and to learn about wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. All the seals in our care are wild animals, while some seals in care may be observed, they are not trained, we interact with them minimally and no direct contact with them is permitted for visitors.
The number of seals in care that may be observed will vary: the number of seals in our care varies throughout the year. We rescue seal pups so we will be busiest during the peak of pupping seasons and the month or two following this peak. While the number of seals in care may vary, the number of seals that may be observed will vary further as it is dependent on their health condition, behaviour and stage of rehabilitation. This means that it is possible that only 1-2 seals in care may be able to be observed during a visit.
-
Can children take part in the Seal Feed and Enrichment Experiences?
This experience is restricted to individuals 13 years of age and older. Participants 13-18 years old must be accompanied by a participating guardian who also partakes in the experience. By making a booking, you confirm and agree that all participants meet the minimum age requirement of 13 years at the time of the experience. Any participant under the minimum age will not be permitted to participate, Seal Rescue Ireland reserves the right to deny access or any refunds if age requirements are not met.
-
What should I wear?
Please wear weather appropriate clothing. The majority of our facilities are outdoors, and are gravelled but can get mucky so please wear good footwear.
-
Can we hold a seal?
We would never recommend holding or touching seals as they are wild animals and can bite, when they feel threatened or in pain. Their mouths also have nasty bacteria in them, if you are bitten it can lead to dangerous infection! However, the benefit of our Rescue Tour is that you can get closer than is usually recommended in the wild, as our seals are safely inside our enclosures, and kennels! If you book one of our experiences, you get even closer to our seals behind the scenes at the seal enclosures and hospital, under the supervision and safe instruction of our Animal Care Team.
-
Can we feed a seal?
If you book one of our Seal Feed and Enrichment Experiences, or our Rescuer for a Day Experience you will get to feed
the seals! The seals are on a special diet, and are given a certain weight of fish every day to ensure they grow healthy
and strong. We even add vitamins and medicine if they are needed! During the Experience bookings, you can help us
to prepare the feeds. During these special experiences we coordinate your experience to fit in with the seals usual feeding times. Seal feeding experiences are restricted to individuals 13 years of age and older. Participants 13-18 years old must be accompanied by a participating guardian who also partakes in the experience. -
Why do you allow the public to tour inside your Seal Rescue?
Tours of Seal Rescue Ireland allow us to engage with the public to inspire them to care about, and protect our native seal species, and the coastal areas they inhabit! A lot of seals are in care, are there due to man-made threats such as disturbance, water pollution, entanglement from plastics and netting, and non-sustainable fishing practices. So letting people know how they can help to reduce these threats is of great importance! When people visit and pay for their tour, they are directly supporting the, rescue, care, medical needs, food and rehabilitation of the seals, until they are ready for release!