At Limavady Workhouse Museum · 24d Benevenagh Drive, Limavady, BT49 0AQ, Co. Derry
Limavady Workhouse Museum opens with free admission for European Heritage Open Days, inviting visitors to step inside one of the best-preserved workhouses of its kind in Ireland and explore over 180 years of history. The building opened in 1842 at the height of the Great Famine and later served as Roe Valley Hospital until the late 1990s, so a single visit takes in both the harsh conditions of 19th-century poor relief and the site’s long second life as a working hospital. Guided tours through the day uncover the stories of the residents, staff and patients who passed through the building across those two very different eras, drawing on original admission records and oral history collected from former hospital employees. Free guided tours depart at 11am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm and 4pm, taking in the workhouse’s original corridors, dormitories and wards, many of which remain largely as they were. This EHOD opening runs alongside the museum’s own regular Saturday tour programme, giving visitors who might normally pay for a ticket the chance to see the site without the usual cost, and is likely to be busier than a standard Saturday given the wider European Heritage Open Days publicity across Northern Ireland that weekend.
The museum is on Benevenagh Drive at the edge of Limavady town, with free on-site parking and Limavady’s town centre a short distance away by foot or a short drive.
Heading to Limavady Workhouse Museum in Limavady? Derry has plenty more to see. Read the Limavady area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.