National Museum Of Ireland - Country Life
Near Great National Hotel Ballina
Explore four floors of award-winning exhibition galleries, a historic country house and formal gardens at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life, Turlough Park, Castlebar.
Set in the spectacular grounds of Turlough Park House, this museum is located just five minutes’ drive from Castlebar and is the only branch of the National Museum of Ireland located outside Dublin.
The museum is home to Ireland’s National Folklife Collection and charts the day-to-day lives of our rural ancestors from the 1850s to the 1950s. Exhibitions explore an almost vanished way of life through traditional crafts and skills, life in the home, farming and fishing, life in the community, festivals and customs.
Visitors can see how ordinary people lived during an extraordinary century of change, rebellion, revolution and revival.
Interactive audio and visual displays, objects, rare archive photography and film footage combine to make the past present.
Turlough Park House and Gardens
Next to the modern exhibition galleries is Turlough Park House, a neo Victorian Gothic mansion and the ancestral home of the Fitzgerald family. The house offers a fascinating insight into how the gentry lived in 19th century Ireland. Built in 1865, it was designed by the celebrated architect Thomas Newenham Deane and is a fine example of the High Victorian Gothic style. There are three formal rooms open to the public.
Beautifully situated, Turlough Park House overlooks 30 acres of formal gardens, parkland, an ornamental lake, a restored Victorian style glass house, riverside walks, outdoor art, woodland and a Greenway cycling route.
Shop and café
The museum site includes an Irish craft and gift shop and a café, situated in a charming courtyard setting, serving snacks, lunches, speciality teas, coffees, homemade desserts and children’s specials.
Visitor information
Admission to the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life, Turlough Park House & Gardens, is free. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm, and Sundays 2 to 5pm. Closed Mondays.