heritage centres ireland

Palace Stables Heritage Centre is a picturesque Georgian building which encloses a cobbled courtyard set in the undulating parkland of the Palace Demesne. The building has been lovingly restored and brought back to life as a heritage centre, where the visitor can experience stable life in the 18th century....

The Roscommon Heritage and Genealogical Centre offers a family research service to people with County Roscommon roots. There is a permanent display dealing with Roscommon surnames, around which a series of historical and heritage exhibitions are held each season.

The Church of Ireland church, in which the centre is housed, contains an octagonal nave, a unique architectural feature of its period in Ireland.The centre is open to deal with genealogy all year round, but there is no exhib...

Services The Kildare Heritage and Genealogy Company offers a Partial Service to enquirers and has access to church, civil, land and census returns for that county. The main records include: Earliest Roman Catholic Records for Co Kildare start in 1753 with latest year 1899. Earliest Church of Ireland (Anglican/Episcopalian) records date from 1669 to 1899. The Kildare centre holds copies of The 1841 and 1901 census Tithe Applotment Books Griffith's Valuation Thom's Almanac 1849,...

King House, built by Sir Henry King about 1730 is a house of unique architectural and historical importance.

Situated on the Boyle River, within the town of Boyle, it occupies land formerly controlled by the MacDermot Clan and is the most important provincial town house in Ireland.

Home to the Connaught Rangers regiment from 1788 and the Irish Army since then, recent extensive restoration has brought King House back to its former glory.

With the aid of exciting special...

A major section of Galway's medieval town wall runs through the Eyre Square Shopping Centre. The wall was built by the Norman de Burgos who settled on the banks of the River Corrib in the 13th century.
They built it to protect themselves from the native Irish. In recent times this part of the wall had lain unnoticed until it was incorporated into the new shopping development. Today the walls bask in a new-found glory....

Kilmainham Gaol is the largest unoccupied gaol on the island of Ireland. A tour of the facilities gives the visitor a dramatic and realistic insight into what it was like to be a prisoner in one of these strongholds of punishment and correction between 1796, when it opened, and 1924 when it closed.
The gaol has played a very important role in Irish history with the leaders of the rebellions of 1798, 1803, 1848, 1867 and 1916 being detained here. The leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising wer...

In the last century many areas of Galway city were unpaved and very mucky in wet weather. So gadgets called foot scrapers became popular outside prosperous houses. They were usually made of cast iron and the standard type consisted of two vertical holders with the cleaning bar in between. Most had intricate designs. Two fine examples of footscrapers can be seen outside the main entrance to the Great Southern Hotel, Eyre Square....

A complex of industrial buildings which includes both corn and flax mills powered by the river Swilly. The visitor to Newmills can experience the pleasure of seeing one of the largest waterwheels in Ireland in action as it drives the machinery of the corn mill....

This Visitors Centre tells the story of Grianan Ailigh, an ancient stone ring fort. It's origins date back to the time of myth and legend when it was said to be built by the Dagda, an ancient King of the Tuatha De Danann, in 1700 B.C. The circular ramparts date back as far as 5000 years ago. It later became the Royal Residence of the Ui Neills, overlords of Ulster and High Kings of Ireland, circa 5th Century A.D.

This ancient site's long and interesting history is told in the new cen...

The entrance to Hillsborough Castle is ornamented by a fine set of gates and railings originally erected at Richill Castle in Co. Armagh. Said to have been erected by William Richardson in 1745, and wrought by two brothers named Thornberry from Falmouth in Cornwall, there were moved to Hillsborough in 1936.

The plain railings are contrasted with upright panels bearing spear-and-boss motifs, and the fine central gates are surmounted by an overthrow with a decorative coat of arms....