Carlow County Museum
About
The county museum shares an old convent building on College Street with the tourist office and the library, and you walk in through the tourist office. Admission is free and there are four galleries. The things people come out talking about are the gallows trapdoor from Carlow Gaol, used for public executions in the nineteenth century, and the six-metre carved wooden pulpit from the cathedral across the road. There is a section on the sugar factory, which ran in Carlow for almost eighty years, and on John Tyndall, the nineteenth-century Carlow scientist the museum credits with discovering the greenhouse effect. The museum is run by Carlow County Council with the Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society. It says it is open six days a week, but its own hours page still carries notices from 2022 and 2023, so ring before you plan a Sunday.
Photos
Highlights
- ✓The gallows trapdoor from Carlow Gaol
- ✓The carved pulpit from Carlow Cathedral
- ✓The Carlow sugar factory and John Tyndall displays
- ✓Free admission
Tips
- →Enter through the tourist office on College Street
- →Opening days vary by season; confirm on 059 913 1554
- →Pre-booking is offered on the museum's site, mainly for groups