St George's Heritage and Visitor Centre
About
The heritage centre on Church Lane ties together three buildings: St George's Church of Ireland, established on this site in 1698 and rebuilt in 1829, the Famine Workhouse up at Summerhill, and the Costello Chapel. Its organising idea is what it calls Twin Traditions, the four hundred years in which Gaelic and Planter Carrick lived on top of each other, and the banners running the length of the room take that from the town's 1613 charter to the present. The church holds a Telford organ of 1847 and a Plagemann altarpiece. The hard part of the visit is the workhouse material: between 1849 and 1852, sixty girls were sent from the Carrick workhouse to Australia under the Earl Grey assisted emigration scheme, and their names and their parents' names are on display in the reading room of the Workhouse Attic. A line of bronze plaques set into the footpath runs from the centre's gate up Main Street towards Summerhill, and a bronze sculpture of two of the girls leaving the workhouse was put up in 2025.
Photos
Highlights
- ✓Telford organ of 1847 in St George's Church
- ✓The Workhouse Attic and the Earl Grey emigration records
- ✓Bronze plaque trail from Church Lane up to Summerhill
- ✓Twin Traditions exhibition on four hundred years of the town
Tips
- →Closed on Sundays; Saturday hours are shorter than weekdays
- →Tour options run from the centre alone to the full centre-and-workhouse hour, and are arranged by phone
- →Accessible parking and toilets are beside the centre
Best Season
More Attraction Activities
The Dock
Leitrim's arts centre in the old county courthouse: three galleries, a stage, studios and a cafe.
Costello Memorial Chapel
A sixteen by twelve foot memorial chapel on Bridge Street, built by a widower in 1879, with both graves under glass.
Eclipse Cinemas Carrick-on-Shannon
Multi-screen cinema across the bridge in Cortober, the town's wet-afternoon fallback.