Museums in and near Cork

Cork's fascinating museums vividly tell the story of this historic city. Cork Public Museum features collections devoted to the history of Cork from the Mesolithic period onwards. Cobh, near Cork, has a museum that gives visitors insight into the mass emigrations that took place from this seaport to the United States during the 19th century.

Cork Butter Museum

The Cork Butter Museum is a unique institution celebrating one of Ireland's greatest success stories, the butter trade. The story begins with the central role of dairy culture in the Island of Saints and Scholars ... more

Museums in Ireland really bring history to life, allowing visitors a fascinating glimpse into times gone by. A long and turbulent history means that Ireland offers many wonderful museums for the visitor to explore. Many of the small towns have museums dedicated to regional history and culture, and the major cities offer museums focusing on a wide variety of topics and interests.

There is guaranteed to be a museum to interest everyone. Many of Ireland's museums don't just have artefacts on display: they offer interactive experiences so that visitors can really appreciate what life was like during specific historical eras.

Dublin has a wide range of museums focusing on a number of topics, including literature, history and art. The most famous historical artefact in Dublin is the Book of Kells, one of the oldest and most exquisitely illuminated manuscripts in the world. The book was transcribed and illustrated by Celtic monks in around 800 AD, and contains the four gospels in Latin, written on vellum. It is displayed in the Old Library at Trinity College, where the precious text it has been carefully looked after since the 17th century.

Dublin is home to the National Museum of Ireland, the country's main cultural institution. The museum has three branches in Dublin, each focusing on specific aspects of Ireland's cultural heritage: decorative arts, archaeology and history and natural history. The Decorative Arts and History site features vibrant exhibitions of precious and fascinating artefacts, including displays of costume and clothing, coins, furniture and Irish Silver. The museum also features an exhibition about Ireland's military history, and displays about geology and other aspects of Irish history.

The National Museum of Archaeology and History is home to Ireland's famous collection of Bronze Age gold ornaments and early Irish Christian treasures such as the Ardagh Chalice, the Shrine of St Patrick's Bell and the Tully Lough Cross. The museum also features a gallery devoted to Viking Ireland, where artefacts recovered from excavations in Dublin's Wood Quay are displayed. The museum really gives visitors a sense of the rich cultures of ancient Ireland. You won't want to miss the Museum of Natural History either, which offers insight into the animal life of Ireland, past and present. Skeletons of giant Irish deer meet you at the entrance, and you'll be able to examine models and skeletons of incredible creatures such as whales and basking sharks.

If you're interested in Dublin's Viking history, then head to Dublinia and the Viking World, a wonderful reconstruction of the streets and houses of Medieval Dublin and the world of the Vikings. You can visit the Merchant's House, hop aboard a Viking ship at Wood Quay,and enjoy the interactive and audio visual displays that vividly recreate the Medieval past.

The largest museum in Northern Ireland is Ulster Museum, set the Botanical Gardens of Belfast. The superb museum boasts around 80,000 square metres of display space, devoted to fine and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, local history, botany, zoology and geology. Its archaeological treasures are particularly fascinating, and include artefacts relating to the history of the Irish people from ancient times to the 16th century AD. The history displays trace the social, economic and political histories of Ireland, with emphasis on Ulster from 1600 and Northern Ireland from 1921.

If you'd like to see how people in Northern Ireland lived through the ages, visit the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Belfast. The museum looks at how ordinary people in Northern Ireland have gone about their everyday lives, and it showcases regional traditions from the past and present. Exhibitions of artefacts are on display, and the museum has extensive archive collections of visual images, sound recordings and written documents, all relating to traditional life in Northern Ireland.

The transport section of the museum is also fascinating, and includes transport collections of national and international significance. Displays feature all modes of transport, by land, sea and sky. Highlights of the collection range from historic photographs of the Titanic, which was constructed in Belfast, to a Belfast-built De Lorean sports car. The city has centuries of history to uncover, and there are many other museums devoted to the political and cultural heritage of the Northern Ireland capital.