Take a Tayto Factory Tour in a Northern Ireland Castle

Step through the grand stone gates of Tandragee Castle, and you might expect tales of battles, betrayals, and noble bloodlines. After all, this 500-year-old fortress in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, was once home to the mighty O'Hanlon clan before falling into the hands of the Duke of Manchester during the 19th century.

The property has seen rebellions, battles, and the shifting tides of Irish history. But today, there's a far less dramatic — yet deeply beloved and just as famous — legacy inside these historic walls. It's now a busy factory churning out one of Northern Ireland's most iconic snacks.

Since 1956, the Tayto Group has produced potato chips (or “crisps,” as the locals say) inside this castle, where the unmistakable scent of frying potatoes now wafts through rooms that once housed warriors and aristocrats. 

The castle that became a snack empire

It was Thomas Hutchinson, a savvy businessman with a vision, who transformed the then-crumbling estate in the countryside village of Tandragee into Tayto headquarters after licensing the name from Tayto Crisps in the Republic of Ireland (the two companies remain entirely separate).

Hutchinson perfected his own recipe for tangy cheese-and-onion seasoning and started producing 972 packets daily. Nearly 70 years later, Tayto cranks out millions of chips per day as the third-largest snack manufacturer in the U.K., with over 35% of Northern Ireland's market.

It also has a worldwide shipping operation that regularly ships to expats craving the distinct flavor they grew up with. “We all grew up on Tayto cheese and onion crisps, so they just taste like home,” says Tayto Castle tour guide Kirsty Black, who grew up nearby. 

Inside the Tayto factory tour

The Tayto factory tour gives visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the brand's history and production, plus a chance to meet Mr. Tayto, the ever-smiling, potato-headed mascot. Tickets cost £12.50 (~$16) for adults and £8 (~$10) for children (ages 5-16).

After you've donned hairnets and safety gear, including shoe coverings, a cheerful guide escorts you to the first stop, which is a quarry-like storage room with a high ceiling where Tayto keeps some of the 20,000 tons of local spuds that are harvested in the summer and fall and used throughout the year.

As the tour continues, the delightful aroma of potatoes frying in oil (Tayto goes through nearly 8,000 gallons daily) practically smacks you in the face as you enter the gleaming white factory proper. And yes, there are also plenty of opportunities to taste chips fresh from the fryer and then plucked from the conveyor belt courtesy of your guide.

You even get a chance to sample the chips before they're dusted with any salt or powdered flavoring — they're warm, delicate, and surprisingly refreshing in their simplicity. It also highlights what makes all chips so notoriously difficult to stop eating. These thin slices of crispy potato are simply the perfect vehicle for delivering just the right amount of salt and savory seasoning to your mouth in each bite.

Speaking of which, within these castle grounds lies a closely guarded, vault-like room that only two people in the entire company can access. This is where Tayto's most popular flavor, the famous cheese and onion, is blended. In fact, it's the only flavor mixed at the Tandragee site, precisely due to its secrecy. The recipe, rumored to consist of only five or six ingredients, is known exclusively to only these two individuals, who personally mix it in batches for production in the factory.

A tale of two Taytos

Get ready for a shocking discovery if you leave Tandragee after the tour and venture across the southern border into the Republic of Ireland. You'll quickly realize an entirely different company with different factories, recipes, and packaging (but the same name and dapper, top-hat-wearing mascot) produces a similar line of products.

If you find yourself in a pub in Belfast and order a packet of crisps, you'll likely be handed the bright yellow bag of Northern Tayto. However, if you ever visit Dublin, you'll inevitably encounter the red, white, and blue-packaged Southern Tayto — often cheekily referred to as “Free Stayto.”

So, which Tayto reigns supreme? That depends on whom you ask, but people tend to prefer the brand they grew up with.

Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, who grew up visiting family in the South, has pledged allegiance to Southern Tayto. In contrast, actor Jamie Dornan, who grew up near Belfast, has thrown his support behind the Northern variety.

The enduring legacy of Tayto

During a 2022 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Dornan even suggested celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a food that's more authentically Irish than corned beef and cabbage — a no-frills, potato chip-filled sandwich he grew up eating called a “Tayto smashie.”

Dornan demonstrated how to make the snack, calling for a slice of “the cheapest white bread you can find” to spread generously with mayonnaise. Next, he layered five or six slices of ham (“the cheaper ham, the better,” he insisted), and emptied an entire packet of Tayto cheese and onion on top before crowning it with another slice of mayonnaise-slathered bread.

As he pushed down on the top slice, the chips let out a satisfying crunch, revealing the origin of the sandwich's name. Dornan laughed, saying, “This is perhaps the most exciting thing that will happen in your day, your year, your life.”

Although the O'Hanlon clan undoubtedly made a deafening racket in their attempt to reclaim their fortress from King James I in the 17th century — an effort that ultimately left it in ruins before the Duke of Manchester took it over — it is the simple crunch of a Tayto crisp that has, against all historical odds, become the castle's most enduring legacy.