National Museum – Ireland in gold and bog

Overview

Two million objects sit behind the columns on Kildare Street, and you pay nothing to see any of them. The National Museum of Archaeology opened here in 1890 in a Victorian Palladian building, and the entrance rotunda still sets the tone: a domed roof, a ring of marble columns and a zodiac mosaic underfoot. If your time is short, walk straight to the Treasury and the gold; the rest can wait for a second visit.

The collection traces Irish life from the first stone tools to the close of the Middle Ages. It is the strongest single room of early medieval metalwork on the island, and the bog bodies are unlike anything else in the building.

A bit of background

This is one of the four sites of the National Museum of Ireland, alongside the Natural History Museum on Merrion Street and the Decorative Arts & History Museum at Collins Barracks. The founding collections were gathered in the late 18th and early 19th centuries by the Royal Dublin Society and the Royal Irish Academy, then handed to the state.

The Treasury

The flagship gallery holds two of the best-known objects in Irish art. The Tara Brooch, an 8th-century piece of Celtic metalwork, sits near the Ardagh Chalice, a silver-and-gold communion cup from the 9th century. Both come from the high point of early medieval craftsmanship, and both reward a slow look rather than a quick photo.

Ór – Ireland’s gold

Ireland’s hoard of prehistoric gold is among the largest in Europe. The Ór gallery shows torcs, bracelets and broad gold collars, the oldest dating to around 2200 BC. It is the clearest evidence in the museum of how much wealth and skill moved through Bronze Age Ireland.

Kingship and Sacrifice

The bog bodies are the rooms most visitors remember. Old Croghan Man and others were preserved for two thousand years in peat, and the displays around them set out the Iron Age ritual that put them there. It is not for everyone, and small children may find it grim. The adjoining cases cover the symbols of Irish kingship.

Viking Ireland and the rest

Silver brooches, weapons and everyday objects from the 9th and 10th centuries show how Norse settlers and Irish artisans traded and borrowed from one another. The prehistoric galleries run from stone tools dating to 7000 BC, and the Glendalough: Power, Prayer and Pilgrimage display covers the monastic settlement that shaped Irish spirituality from the 6th to the 12th centuries. A small set of Egyptian antiquities, including a painted sarcophagus lid, sits upstairs.

Getting there

The address is 35A Kildare Street, D02 YK38. The nearest Luas stop is St Stephen’s Green on the Green Line, about five minutes’ walk, and Dublin Bus routes 46A, 145, 145A and 145B stop on Kildare Street. There is no museum car park; paid on-street bays run along Kildare Street and the surrounding blocks, with coach parking nearby for groups.

Disabled access runs throughout the building. Irish Sign Language interpreted tours operate on a regular schedule, and tactile tours are offered for visitors with visual impairments.

With children

A free Treasure-Hunt trail, picked up at the information desk, walks children through the galleries with riddles and clue cards. Touch-screens in the gold and Viking rooms let younger visitors handle objects in 3-D, and there is a free audio-guide app with child-friendly narration. Family workshops tend to run on Saturday mornings; check the event calendar before you travel.

Practical information

The museum holds an average of 4.6 out of 5 on Google across nearly 14,000 reviews, and most visitors find two hours enough for the permanent galleries. No booking is needed, so on a wet weekday morning you can simply walk in. During school holidays it gets busy by early afternoon; come early if you want the Treasury to yourself.

Nearby

The National Library of Ireland is next door, with reading rooms and a standing exhibition on W.B. Yeats. The National Gallery on Merrion Square and St Stephen’s Green are both a few minutes’ walk, and Dublin Castle is a short walk or one Luas stop away.