Strokestown Park Roscommon
Strokestown Park in County Roscommon is one of Ireland's finest Palladian country houses and the site of the Irish National Famine Museum, a combination that makes it one of the most layered and most thought-provoking heritage destinations in Ireland. The house was built for the Mahon family in the 1730s and the estate's history during the Great Famine of 1845 to 1852 is one of the most documented of any in Ireland. The Famine Museum draws extensively on the remarkable archive of estate papers held at Strokestown, which provides an exceptionally detailed record of the management of a large Irish estate during the crisis years. The letters, accounts and communications allow the museum to present the Famine experience with documentary precision available at very few sites, bringing both the decisions made by the landowner and the suffering of the tenant population into sharp focus. The house itself is one of the finest examples of Palladian architecture in the Irish midlands, its principal rooms retaining much of their eighteenth and nineteenth-century decoration and furnishings. The pleasure grounds and walled garden provide outdoor interest in a setting of considerable charm, and the combination of the house, the garden and the museum creates a visit of unusual depth and emotional resonance.