Strokestown Park and the National Famine Museum

Georgian Palladian House And Estate Whose Archive Documents The Evictions Of The Great Famine, Home Of The National Famine Museum, With House Tours And Walled Gardens · Strokestown, Roscommon

Strokestown Park is a Georgian Palladian country house on the edge of a Roscommon village, and the home of the National Famine Museum - the one place in Ireland where the Great Famine of 1845-1852 is told through a single estate's own papers. The Mahon family's archive, rescued when the house was bought in 1979, records rent rolls, evictions, letters from starving tenants and the assisted emigration of about 1,490 people in 1847, many of whom died on the coffin ships or in quarantine in Canada; the same year the landlord, Major Denis Mahon, was shot dead on the road home. People come for that story, for the house tour through rooms that still hold the family's furniture, for the walled pleasure garden and woodland walks, and as the starting point of the National Famine Way walking and cycling trail to Dublin. The honest caveat: this is a quiet, sobering visit in flat midlands country, not a scenic highlight - it is best as a two or three hour stop on a drive between Dublin and the west, and the house is seen only on tours at set times.

Strokestown Park, on the edge of Strokestown village on the N5 Dublin-Westport road, County Roscommon, Strokestown, Roscommon, Ireland

Open daily all year, roughly 10:30-17:00, to about 17:30 in June-August and to about 16:00 in November-January; closed around Christmas (confirm all hours). The house is seen only on guided tours at set times, roughly 12:00 and 14:00 with a 15:30 tour added in summer (confirm) - book the house tour online, as places are limited. The museum and gardens are self-guided. Strokestown is on the N5 about 2 hours from Dublin and 1.5 hours from Westport; Bus Eireann Dublin-Westport coaches stop in the village (confirm).

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