History and Architecture

The Museum of Country Life is the 'youngest' of the four museums that make up the National Museum of Ireland.  Set in the spectacular grounds of Turlough Park, Co. Mayo, it opened in September 2001.

The Museum is the home of the Irish Folklife Collection of the National Museum of Ireland, that is, the National Folklife Collection of the Republic of Ireland.

The Country Life complex includes exhibition galleries, storage facilities for the reserve collection, education rooms, and a conservation laboratory. The exhibition galleries are housed in a purpose-built stone-clad building designed by the Architectural Services of the Office of Public Works.

Public facilities, including a restaurant, bookshop and library, and staff offices are located in the Victorian Turlough Park House – formerly the home of the Fitzgerald family. The original drawing room and library of the ‘Big House’ are open to the public and furnished as they might have looked in 1900.