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heritage · Saturday 15 August 2026 · 2:30pm 
Heritage Week Conservation Talks at Strokestown Park
At Strokestown Park · Strokestown, Co. Roscommon
At Strokestown Park · Strokestown, Co. Roscommon
Strokestown Park’s curator, Ciara Mc Cormac, gives two talks during National Heritage Week 2026, bookending the week with a look at the practical, ongoing work of keeping a 300-year-old estate standing. The first, Conservation of Historic Wallpaper at Strokestown Park House, runs on Saturday, 15 August at 2.30pm in the Vaulted Stables. The second, Strokestown Park: Heritage at Risk, closes out the week on Saturday, 22 August at 12.30pm, in the same location.
The wallpaper talk looks at the specific risks facing the house’s historic interiors, papers that in some rooms date back well over a century, and the conservation decisions involved in keeping fragile original material on the walls rather than replacing it. The second talk widens the lens from one house to the broader question of built heritage at risk in Ireland, covering the kinds of damp, structural and funding pressures that threaten historic buildings generally, using Strokestown Park itself as the working example throughout. Both are run as part of National Heritage Week, the Heritage Council’s annual nationwide programme, and Mc Cormac speaks from direct experience managing conservation work on site rather than as a visiting academic. Strokestown Park House itself dates to the 1730s, built for the Mahon family on the site of an earlier tower house, which gives both talks a real, walkable example to point to rather than an abstract case study. The same week at Strokestown Park also includes a walled garden tour and a free day at the National Famine Museum, so the two talks sit inside a busier than usual fortnight at the estate.
Strokestown is on the N5, about 25km north of Roscommon town and 155km west of Dublin. Strokestown Park is signposted in the town centre, with on-site parking. Bus Éireann’s N5 services connect Strokestown with Roscommon town, Athlone and Longford.
Both talks are held in the Vaulted Stables, a short walk from the Georgian house and the National Famine Museum, so either one is easy to combine with a longer visit to the rest of the estate. There is more to see in Strokestown and across Co. Roscommon.
Heading to Strokestown Park in Strokestown? Roscommon has plenty more to see. Read the Strokestown area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.