Carlow County Museum

 Carlow County Museum

Unfortunately Laois has no County Museum. There is the wonderful Irish Fly Fishing and Game Shooting Museum in Attanagh, however there is no County Museum to speak of.

Luckily in neighboring Carlow and situated in the heart of the town on College Street is the Carlow County Museum.

The small museum in Carlow plays hosts to a wealth of interesting and eclectic artifacts and antiquities ranging from Stone axe heads to Bronze age pottery vessels, manuscripts, and even the young medical student Kevin Barry's death mask and the last cigarette he smoked before his untimely execution by hanging.

I found both an ornately carved Quern stone and a carved stone head of unknown origin very interesting indeed.

 I can't recall seeing a decorated Quern stone before.

You'll need to look up as well as you travel through the museum or you will miss several artifacts hanging above head height.

Other interesting items included a 360 million year old Squid fossil, a Knight's Effigy saved from vandalism at Portarlington, a Sinn Féin rebellion Handbook and a plate from the Carlow Lunatic Asylum.

There's lots more to see besides my small few examples here.

All in all the little museum in Carlow is well worth taking the time to visit and entry is free.

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Coordinates here :

52°50'10.5"N 6°55'40.7"W

52.836241, -6.927957