The suggested way to access XML attributes from the results produced by XmlParser is to use the form x.'@attrName' . Note the quotes around the attribute name. For XmlSlurper style of GPath, you can leave off the quotes, and write x.@attrName This doesn't appear to be supported in the XmlParse style. The Groovy in Action book has a table (Table 12.4) on page 410-411, which shows these variations and restrictions. The form "x.@name" is also used, in general, in Groovy, to specify direct field access, see Groovy in Action on page 203, section titled "Field access with .@". Somehow, it appears, that for XmlSlurper results, you can use the ".@name" form to access an attribute. It would be nice if the ".@name" form (where you don't have to "quote" the @name) worked also for XmlParse result "Nodes".