Turlough House

The current Turlough House was designed by Thomas Newenham Deane, who also designed the Kildare Street branch of the National Museum of Ireland.^[2] It was built from 1863 to 1867, and was owned by the Fitzgerald family of Turlough.^[3]

Museum

In 1991, the house and 36 acres were purchased by the Mayo County Council. The house was renovated and an adjacent museum building was constructed in the slope of a hill above a pond. The Country Life Museum opened in September 2001.^[2] The upstairs of the original house is used as offices by the museum's small staff, and the downstairs is on show to the public.

Gardens

The original gardens of Turlough House are now maintained by the Office of Public Works and the local authority, Mayo County Council. They include a vinery, a special type of greenhouse for grapevines and other fruiting plants, a number of walks, terraces and a sunken garden, the ruins of the original house (occupied 1722–1786) and a section of the Castlebar River, with an artificial lake with islands, and a round tower.^[4]

Exhibitions

The museum has both permanent and temporary exhibitions, arranged on a thematic basis over four^[6] floors.

Some features have included:

• Michael Davitt Exhibition, an exhibition to commemorate the life of Michael Davitt, the founder of the Irish National Land League.^[7]
• The Cross of Cong, a 12th-century processional cross that purportedly contains a piece of the True Cross, and is considered one of Ireland's most important medieval art treasures.^[8] The cross was kept at Cong Abbey in County Mayo until 1839 when it was given to the Royal Irish Academy and then the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.^[9][10] In 2010, the cross was returned to County Mayo to be displayed at the Museum of Country Life for one year.^[8][11]
• Power and Privilege: Photographs of the Big House in Ireland 1858–1922, an exhibit showing the lives of the gentry and their servants.^[12]
• The Coggalbeg hoard, a bronze-age gold collar and discs that were dug up in a bog near Strokestown in 1945. The hoard had been stored in a Pharmacy safe until the safe was stolen in 2009. The contents of the safe, including the gold objects which were presumably overlooked, were found in a dumpster.^[13]