Museums in Ireland

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This is a selection of the best of Ireland's major museums and special interest museums. Most are of general interest and many have good facilities for children, with special packs available to help them get the best from their visit.

A museum category that can be very rewarding is the small local museum. Not just because the wealth of items on display will help you to better understand the locality, but because they are often run by very knowledgeable and enthusiastic local volunteers, who are more than happy to share their knowledge with interested visitors.

Note that all branches of the National Museum of Ireland are free to enter and no tickets are required, though there may be special exhibitions or events from time to time which require a ticket.

An Dun Transport and Heritage Museum

Museums Ferbane, Co Westmeath

A privately owned Transport and Heritage Museum which displays a magnificent collection of vintage cars, trucks, tractors and other agricultural machinery. Highlights include a 1920's Bullnose Morris Cowley, a Shelvoke & Drewry truck from the...
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Bunratty Castle and Folk Park

Museums Shannon, Co Clare

Located close to Shannon Airport and therefore often the first stop for those arriving in Ireland, Bunratty is quite busy and touristy but nonetheless it is well worth spending at least a half day here, and it would be easy to stay for a full day. The...
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Cavan County Museum

Museums Co Cavan, Ballyjamesduff

A good example of an excellent local museum, with well designed exhibitions tracing the history and heritage of Cavan from pre-Christian times right up to the mid 20th century. Particularly interesting exhibits include the Lavy Sheela-na-gig and the...
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Hell's Kitchen Railway Museum

Museums Castlerea, Co Roscommon

This small museum is one of those quirky places that fill you with joy when you are lucky enough to stumble upon them. That the museum and its collection exist at all is testament to one man's enduring determination and passion, that of Sean Browne....
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Imaginosity

Museums Sandyford, Dublin 18

Any child who thinks museums are boring will have that notion well and truly shattered following a visit to Imaginosity, a new museum in Dublin which is sure to enthral anyone aged between one and, well, ninety-one! Imaginosity is not a museum of childhood...
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Irish Museum of Country Life

Museums Co Mayo, Castlebar

An absolutely fascinating place, with exhibitions which illuminate the way that ordinary Irish country people lived and worked between 1850 and 1950. There are regular demonstrations, music and dance performances and special events, all of which bring...
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Irish National Heritage Park

Museums Ferrycarraig, Co Wexford

This privately owned Heritage Park tells the story of early Ireland through carefully reconstructed buildings and re-enactments of the life and work of Irish people in centuries and millennia past. While there are no original historic structures here,...
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Museum of Natural History

Museums Merrion St, Dublin 2

Known to generations of Dubliners as the "Dead Zoo", this is a perennial rainy day favourite with kids. Most of the collection dates from Victorian times, a period when killing and stuffing endangered wild animals, stealing nests and eggs and...
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Museum of the Decorative Arts

Museums Collin's Barracks, Benburb St, Dublin 7

Home to fascinating collections of artifacts reflecting Irish economic, social, industrial, political and military history over the last 300 years, including weaponry, furniture, silver, ceramics, glassware and clothing. Of particular note is the collection...
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National Museum of Ireland (Archeology & History)

Museums Kildare Street/Merrion Street:, Dublin 2

This is Ireland's largest museum and the national repository for all archaeological objects found in Ireland. Its collection runs to over two million artefacts ranging in date from 7000BC and the late medieval period. It is a real treasure trove, with particularly...
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National Print Museum

Museums Beggar's Bush, Dublin 4

Located in a former Garrison Chapel on Haddington Rd in a very old part of Dublin known as Beggar's Bush, this museum's aim is to preserve machinery from the pre-computer era of printing when 'hot metal' printing was the norm. As many of the older print...
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St Patrick's Trian

Museums Armagh City

Kids love this place, which in three separate and highly interactive exhibitions tells the history of Armagh, the story of St Patrick and recounts the tale of Gulliver's Travels. The name Trian [say: Tree-an] is taken from the three old divisions...
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The Cavan and Leitrim Railway

Museums Dromod, Co Leitrim

Once one of the busiest narrow-gauge railways in Ireland, mainly due to its serving the local coal mines, the line is no longer used for transport. Instead it has been the focus of loving reconstruction by local enthusiasts who brought it from virtual...
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The Hunt Museum

Museums Limerick City

The museum was built especially to hold more than 2000 artifacts collected by John and Gertrude Hunt, antique dealers and art advisors, who collected things that interested them, with no commercial motivation. Their intersts were diverse and the collection...
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The Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum

Museums Lisburn, Co Antrim

The linen industry was such an important part of life in Northern Ireland that it is impossible to look at the history of this part of the country without understanding it. This museum fulfills its role in telling the story of Irish Linen admirably....
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The Sheelin Irish Lace Museum

Museums Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh

Irish Lace was at one time world renowned and prized for its beauty and the intricacy of its stitchwork. Examples of old Irish lace can attract high rices at auction and are not that easy to find. Nowadays the craft is kept alive by just a small band...
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The Tower Museum

Museums City of Derry

Although it looks like an old Norman building, this is in fact a modern one, purpose built to house this interesting museum. There are exhibits tracing the history of the City of Derry from earliest times, and this is a city which has certainly had an...
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Trinity College & The Book of Kells

Museums Dublin City

Founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, Trinity is Ireland's oldest university and one of the oldest in the world. It is impossible to walk in the main entrance, under the famous arch, without being aware of the many generations of past students in...
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Ulster American Folk Park

Museums Co Tyrone, Omagh

If you were in two minds about going to Northern Ireland, this place alone should be enough to make you go. This is an open-air museum telling the story of emigration from Ulster to America in the 18th & 19th centuries in a vivid and exciting manner....
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Ulster Museum

Museums Belfast City

Located in Belfast's excellent Botanic Gardens, the Ulster Museum houses an eclectic collection covering not just Ulster History but Ancient Egypt and the Spanish Armada also. A permanent exhibition on World Cultures is especially interesting, as is...
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