Bodhran Making

The bodhran is a shallow frame drum, usually between thirty-five and forty-five centimetres across, with a goatskin head on a wooden frame, played with a short double-ended stick called a tipper or cipin held in the middle. Its history as a music instrument is shorter than often claimed - it was in use as a farm implement and in wren and mumming processions, and Sean O Riada's promotion of it in the 1960s brought it into the centre of traditional music, where it has been argued about ever since. Making one properly is skilled work: selecting and curing the skin, which behaves differently by animal and season, shaping and steaming the frame, and setting the tension. Malachy Kearns has made drums at Roundstone since the 1970s, in a former Franciscan monastery, and the workshop can be visited. Modern drums often have tuning systems, which purists dislike and damp weather makes very useful.

What you actually see

• The skin work - goatskin selected, cured and set on the frame.
• The Roundstone workshop - drums made in a former Franciscan monastery.
• The tipper - the short double-ended stick held at its middle.
• The tuning debate - modern tunable drums against traditional fixed heads.

When to go

April to October for the Connemara drive; the Roundstone workshop keeps retail hours with reduced winter opening. An hour covers a visit.

Honest expectations

The workshop is a shop with a working area attached, not a museum - you may or may not see making in progress. Goatskin heads react badly to damp and heat; an untuned drum needs managing. It is a small stop.

Nearby

Roundstone village and Dog's Bay are alongside; Clifden is north.