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heritage · Saturday 15 August 2026 · Various 
Donaghmore Workhouse & Agricultural Museum Guided Tour
At Donaghmore Workhouse & Agricultural Museum · Donaghmore, Co. Laois
At Donaghmore Workhouse & Agricultural Museum · Donaghmore, Co. Laois
The Donaghmore Workhouse & Agricultural Museum runs free guided tours throughout National Heritage Week, giving visitors a close look at one of the most affecting sites in the Laois landscape. This is not a passive museum visit - local guides lead you through the restored interiors, telling the stories of the 1,200 people who came through these gates at the height of the Great Famine. It suits anyone with an interest in Irish history, families with older children, and visitors who want to understand what rural life in the midlands actually looked and felt like in the nineteenth century.
The tour lasts roughly 90 minutes and takes in both the Workhouse and the Agricultural Museum alongside it. Inside the workhouse you walk through authentically restored dormitories, a kitchen, and the original waiting hall - the room where families arrived and were processed, often separated from one another on entry. The guides draw on local records to put faces to the numbers: at its height, around 10 per cent of the surrounding population was sheltering here.
The agricultural side of the museum runs alongside and offers a different kind of time-travel. Old farming tools, machinery, and implements from rural Irish life are displayed in a way that shows what daily work looked like before and after the Famine years. Together, the two collections give a fuller picture than either would alone. Tours are free during Heritage Week and run across the full week from 15 to 23 August.
Donaghmore sits in the south of County Laois, roughly 40 minutes from Portlaoise. The museum is well signposted and accessible from the M7 and M8 motorways, making it a straightforward drive from Dublin, Kilkenny, or Limerick. If you are travelling by rail, Ballybrophy station is about a four-minute drive away. Free on-site parking is available for cars and coaches, with accessible spaces close to the entrance.
The village sits in a quiet stretch of the Laois midlands, and the workhouse grounds themselves are worth a slow walk once the tour is done. There is more to see in Donaghmore and across Co. Laois.
Heading to Donaghmore Workhouse & Agricultural Museum? Laois has plenty more to see. Browse the area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.