National Museum of Country Life

This is the only branch of the National Museum of Ireland outside Dublin, opened in 2001 in a purpose-built gallery in the grounds of Turlough Park House, a Victorian mansion by the architect of the Natural History Museum. Its subject is the material culture of rural life from about 1850 to 1950: the tools, clothes, furniture, boats, baskets, thatching equipment, fishing gear and household objects of ordinary people, collected largely by the Irish Folklife Division. It covers the things museums usually skip - how turf was cut, how a currach was built, what a woman's working day involved, how emigration and the fairs and the seasons structured a year. The displays are dense and object-led rather than interactive, which suits the material. Entry is free. Outside are the house, restored gardens, a lake and woodland walks, and a round tower in the old graveyard nearby.

What you'll find

• The folklife collection - tools, clothes, boats and household objects, 1850 to 1950.
• The working life displays - turf cutting, fishing, thatching and craft.
• Turlough Park House - the Victorian mansion the museum sits behind.
• The grounds - gardens, lake and woodland walks, with a round tower nearby.

When to go

Any season for the galleries, which are indoors and free. April to October for the grounds. Closed Mondays. Two to four hours covers it properly.

Practical notes

Object-led and text-heavy rather than interactive - excellent for the interested, slow for young children. Closed on Mondays. The house itself is only partly accessible. Eight kilometres from Castlebar with no realistic public transport.

Nearby

Castlebar is west; Ballintubber Abbey and Croagh Patrick are south.