Echoes of Aughagower - Heritage Day

Aughagower Tidy Towns marks years of local heritage work with a free afternoon of exhibitions, crafts, music and children’s activities at the village community centre, built around the launch of a new online heritage trail.

What to Expect

The afternoon opens at 3pm with the official launch of the Aughagower Heritage Trail website by RTE News presenter Ray Kennedy. The trail uses QR codes placed around the village to unlock historical information, maps, old photographs, audio recordings and video for anyone walking the route, a project Tidy Towns volunteers have built to record the parish’s history. From there the afternoon moves into a full community heritage day: exhibitions and local history displays inside the community centre, traditional skills demonstrations, live music and children’s activities running alongside the more formal launch. One of the set pieces is a strongman demonstration lifting the Clochogle stone, a nod to old tests of local strength still remembered in the area. Food and refreshments are available throughout, and the whole event is free and open to all ages, with the children’s activities aimed at giving families a reason to stay for the afternoon rather than just the launch itself. It is a small, genuinely local event rather than a tourist production, run by the same volunteers who look after the village day to day.

Good to Know

• Date and time: Sunday 16 August 2026, 3pm to 6pm
• Venue: Aughagower Community Centre, Aughagower, Co. Mayo
• Free admission, no booking required
• Children’s activities run throughout the afternoon alongside the exhibitions and music
• Contact Aughagower Tidy Towns on 086 837 7538 or aughagowertidytownshv@gmail.com

Getting There

Aughagower is a small village on the R330 about 6km south of Westport, on the route walkers use for the Tochar Phadraig pilgrim path to Croagh Patrick. There is no scheduled bus service into the village itself; the community centre is on the main road through the village, with parking nearby.