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heritage · Saturday 15 August 2026 · Various 
Glenview Folk Museum National Heritage Week Event
At Glenview Folk Museum · Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim
At Glenview Folk Museum · Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim
Glenview Folk Museum has been quietly preserving the daily fabric of Irish life since 2000, when the Kennedy family decided that too much of the country’s material heritage was being lost and set about collecting it. During National Heritage Week, the museum opens its doors free of charge - making this one of the best value afternoons you can spend in Co. Leitrim. It suits families with curious children, anyone who grew up in rural Ireland and wants to see their own past laid out in front of them, and visitors looking for something more personal than a conventional museum.
The centrepiece is a fully reconstructed 1930s Irish street, complete with period shops stocked and dressed exactly as they would have been - a chemist, a pub, a travelling shop, tradesmen’s tools hanging ready for work that stopped decades ago. The detail is remarkable: this is not a display case with labels, but a walk-in scene you can move through. Around 7,000 artefacts fill the museum, spanning pre-Famine times to the mid-20th century. Farm machinery, horse-drawn equipment, a thresher, butter churns and dairy gear sit alongside household furniture, coins, medals and military memorabilia. Then there is the egg cup collection - over 4,000 of them, the largest private collection in Ireland, which sounds like an odd thing until you find yourself standing in front of it.
Brian Kennedy, the owner, typically guides visitors through personally. Reviewers consistently single him out: knowledgeable, generous with his time, and visibly proud of what the family has built. Most visitors spend two hours or more without noticing the time passing. There are good toilet facilities on site and a restaurant and bar if you want to make an afternoon of it.
Glenview Folk Museum sits on the Cloone road, around 3 kilometres from Ballinamore town centre. The museum is well signposted from all approaching routes. There is ample free parking for cars and coaches. Ballinamore is roughly an hour’s drive south-east of Sligo and about an hour and a half from Galway. Bus Eireann serves the town from Carrick-on-Shannon; check current timetables on buseireann.ie before travelling as connections are limited in this part of Leitrim.
Ballinamore sits at the heart of the Shannon-Erne Waterway - a canal system that links Lough Erne to the Shannon and draws anglers, canoeists and walkers through the town all summer. It is a good base for the wider county. There is more to see in Ballinamore and across Co. Leitrim.
Heading to Glenview Folk Museum in Ballinamore? Leitrim has plenty more to see. Read the Ballinamore area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.