Overview
When the Mahon family sold Strokestown Park in 1979, the new owner found more than 55,000 estate papers, rent books, eviction lists and tenants’ begging letters, sealed away since the Great Famine. That archive is why the estate now holds Ireland’s National Famine Museum, and it is the thing that lifts a visit here above the usual big-house tour. Two experiences anchor the day: a guided walk through the house, left much as the family kept it, and the museum in the old stable yards. If your time is short, make it the museum. Between the two lie six acres of restored walled garden and a free woodland walk.
History
The house was built around 1729 to 1730 for Thomas Mahon MP, to a design attributed to Richard Cassels (also known as Richard Castle), the architect of Dublin’s Leinster House. It went up around an earlier house of 1696, and the front portico was added about 1820. That 1696 house in turn stood on the site of a sixteenth-century castle, on land once held by the O’Conor Roe.
The estate’s modern significance comes from the Famine. In 1847 it was owned by Major Denis Mahon, and after a wave of evictions and tenant unrest he was assassinated that November, a killing that made international headlines. When Jim Callery acquired the property in 1979 and uncovered the 55,000-document archive, it became the basis for the museum, which opened in 1994. A €3.9m Fáilte Ireland refurbishment reopened the museum in 2022, modernising the displays while keeping the character of the stable block.
What to see and do
Guided house tours
The interior is only accessible on a guided tour, which typically runs at 12:00, 14:00 and 15:30, though times vary by season and day. The route covers the principal reception rooms, the galleried kitchen and the upstairs domestic spaces, including a period playroom and the servants’ quarters, with original furnishings, family portraits and personal objects still in place. Book ahead in peak summer and during school holidays.
The National Famine Museum
The museum tells the story of the Great Hunger through the estate’s own archive, reconstructed spaces and interactive displays, with audio guides in six languages. Highlights include original tenant correspondence and estate ledgers from the 1840s, a recreated famine-era kitchen, and the ‘Missing 1490’ exhibition documenting the 1847 march of nearly 1,500 Strokestown tenants who walked 165km to Dublin seeking relief.
Victorian walled gardens and woodland walk
The walled garden covers six acres, a four-acre pleasure garden and a two-acre fruit and vegetable garden, restored over ten years and opened to the public in August 1997 to its original eighteenth-century design. It holds what the Guinness Book of Records lists as the longest herbaceous border in Britain and Ireland, along with a period peach house and vinery. It is at its best from late spring into early autumn. The woodland walk beyond the walls is free to visit even without a ticket for the house.
Starting the National Famine Way
The front gate is the official trailhead for the National Famine Way, a 165km waymarked route retracing the 1847 tenant march to Dublin, suitable for walking or cycling. Bronze-cast children’s shoes mark points along the path, and a free app provides navigation, audio stories and background for anyone tackling a section.
Practical information
- Opening times: Summer (May to Sept) 10:30 to 17:30; winter (Oct to Apr) 11:30 to 16:00. The site closes annually from 23 December to 13 January. Check the website before travelling.
- Tickets: A combined adult ticket for the house tour, museum and gardens is €13.50. The woodland walk is free.
- Accessibility: The museum and walled gardens are fully wheelchair and buggy accessible; the ground floor of the house is accessible, but the upper floors are limited by the historic structure.
- Facilities: Toilets, baby-changing and the Woodland Café, set in the old granary, serving lunches and light refreshments. The woodlands, gardens and café are dog-friendly.
- Parking: Free on-site parking for cars and coaches. The car park is small, and staff help larger vehicles such as motorhomes.
- Getting there: Strokestown Park House is about 10km north of Roscommon town, easily reached by car with local bus services from Roscommon and nearby towns.
- Management: Since 2015 the estate has been run by the Irish Heritage Trust, an independent charity, though it remains privately owned.
- Nearby stops: Pair it with King House, another fine Georgian mansion, or the medieval ruins and forest trails at Lough Key Forest Park.
Allow about three hours for the house, museum and gardens, and book the house tour ahead in summer, when tour slots fill. If you only want the grounds, the woodland walk costs nothing.