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heritage · Wednesday 19 August 2026 · TBD 
Mumming and Music Evening at Sigginstown Castle - National Heritage Week
At Sigginstown Castle · Sigginstown, Co. Wexford
At Sigginstown Castle · Sigginstown, Co. Wexford
An evening at Sigginstown Castle during National Heritage Week is one of those occasions that reminds you how vivid Irish folk tradition can be when it is actually performed rather than described. The Sigginstown Mummers bring a centuries-old drama back to life inside the grounds of a restored 16th-century tower house on the south Wexford coast - and once the play is done, the evening opens into a traditional music session where anyone with an instrument, a voice, or a pair of clapping hands is welcome to join in.
The Sigginstown Mummers perform a short mumming play rooted in a tradition that goes back several hundred years. The cast works with stock characters - Doctor, Dragon, Prince George and others - that have been part of Wexford mumming for generations. Wexford’s own form of the tradition has distinctive features: intricate choreography, stick strikes, and rhythmic exchanges that set it apart from mumming elsewhere in Ireland. The play itself runs to around ten minutes and is performed in the Coach House at the castle.
After the drama, an open music session follows. This is the informal, participatory kind - bring whatever you play, or simply come to listen. The castle’s Coach House Café is on site, so there is somewhere to sit and settle in before the evening gets going. The whole event is free and is part of National Heritage Week 2026, which runs from 15 to 23 August.
Sigginstown Castle sits in Tomhaggard, in historical south Wexford, a few minutes from Tacumshane Lake. By road from Wexford town, take the R736 south towards Rosslare, then follow signs for Tomhaggard and Sigginstown - the drive is roughly 20 to 25 minutes. There is no direct bus service to this rural location, so a car is the practical option. Roadside parking is typical for this part of the county.
South Wexford is quiet, coastal, and genuinely worth taking a day for. Tacumshane Lake just down the road is a good birdwatching spot, and the nearby village of Kilmore Quay has harbour-front pubs and boats out to the Saltee Islands. There is more to see in Wexford and across Co. Wexford.
Heading to Sigginstown Castle in Wexford? Wexford has plenty more to see. Read the Wexford area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.