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festivals · Saturday 15 August 2026 · Various 
National Heritage Week Longford 2026
At Various venues, Co. Longford · Various, Co. Longford
At Various venues, Co. Longford · Various, Co. Longford
National Heritage Week is coordinated nationally by the Heritage Council and runs across Ireland from 15 to 23 August 2026, with County Longford putting together its own spread of free events rather than one single gathering. Longford County Council’s Heritage Office and Longford County Library, Archives, Arts and Heritage Services organise the county’s programme, working with local groups, the OPW and outside researchers to cover archaeology, architecture, folklore and genealogy across several towns.
Confirmed 2026 Longford entries include a free children’s archaeology workshop at Corlea Trackway Visitor Centre near Keenagh, home to Europe’s largest surviving Iron Age bog road, where children aged around 8 to 12 get a hands-on introduction to how archaeologists actually work, from excavation techniques to interpreting finds. In Ballymahon, Ballymahon Community Library hosts the launch of “Heritage Homes in South Longford,” Eamon Hughes’s eight-year survey of eighteen country houses in the barony of Shrule, presented by Jacqueline Whyte and Tom Reilly with hardback copies for sale at €60 on the night. Elsewhere in the county, University of Galway researchers Marie Boran and Brigid Clesham present the Irish Landed Estates Database, focused on Big Houses and estates across Longford and Westmeath, and Longford County Council runs a drop-in consultation clinic inviting residents to shape the county’s new Heritage Plan 2026 to 2030 over tea and a chat, with no booking required.
Because the week is a loose collection of separate events rather than a single festival programme, exact days and times for each session are staggered and confirmed individually. The pattern in past years has been for most Longford events to land in the week’s opening days.
Longford town, the natural base for the week, sits on the N4 Dublin to Sligo road and on the Dublin Heuston to Westport and Ballina rail line, around 90 minutes from Dublin by car or train. Ballymahon is reached via the N55 and R392 in the south of the county, about 20 minutes from Athlone, while Corlea Trackway is signposted off the R397 near Keenagh, roughly 15 minutes south-west of Longford town by car with its own car park. Bus Eireann and TFI Local Link services connect the main towns, though a car gives the most flexibility for moving between venues in the same day.
Heading to Various venues, Co. Longford in Longford? Longford has plenty more to see. Read the Longford area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.