Molly Gallivan’s Cottage & Traditional Farm

About the museum

Molly Gallivan’s Cottage stands on the N71 between Kenmare and Glengarriff in the Sheen Valley. The farm is named after Molly Gallivan, a widow with seven young children who ran a small mountain holding in the nineteenth century. To make ends meet she sold home-distilled poitín, known locally as Molly’s Mountain Dew, in an illegal pub. When a new road over the mountains in the 1840s brought travellers, her house became a stop for tea and home baking, and she later sold hand-spun woollens and Aran sweaters.

The cottage is more than 200 years old and was originally a single-storey thatched house. Her descendant Jeremiah Gallivan, a bachelor who farmed with traditional methods, lived there until his death in 1997. The present owner family bought the cottage and farm in 1999 and spent years restoring it and discovering more layers of history on the land, including a Neolithic stone row, a peat bog, prehistoric field systems and the ruins of a famine-era cottage.

Today visitors can walk round the cottage and the working farm on a self-guided route or join a guided tour that includes soda bread making over the open fire, turf cutting and a poitín demonstration. The site also has a craft shop, tea rooms and a barn restaurant, and hosts traditional Irish evenings with food, music and storytelling.

Highlights

• Two-century-old cottage preserved as Molly Gallivan’s home
• Traditional tenant farm with farm animals, a turf bog and a duck pond
• Famine cottage ruin and a Neolithic stone row about 5,000 years old
• Poitín still and demonstration of the illegal spirit
• Guided tour with soda bread baking and traditional Irish evenings

Permanent exhibition

• Molly’s Cottage and Traditional Farm – A preserved cottage more than 200 years old and a traditional tenant farm showing everyday rural life, with a poitín still, a famine cottage ruin, a turf bog and a Neolithic stone row.

Admission & discounts

The €5 self-guided ticket includes the cottage, the traditional farm, the famine ruin and the Neolithic site. Other experiences, such as the poitín experience and the traditional Irish evenings, are priced separately on the tours page.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom: no information
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

The site states that it is an accessible business. One area has a gentle slope and staff will help if needed.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Hands-on stations

The site calls itself a good experience for visitors of all ages; children can meet the farm animals and see how bread, turf and poitín were made.

Getting there & parking

The site is about a 12-minute drive from Kenmare and from Glengarriff on the Ring of Beara route, on the N71.

Amenities & dining

• Café
• Restaurant
• Museum shop

Molly’s Old Tea Rooms and the Barn Restaurant serve home-cooked and locally sourced food; the restaurant and the Irish evenings need pre-booking. The craft shop sells artisan crafts, jewellery, pottery and knitwear.

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent
• Corporate events

Tailor-made experiences, meals and tours are offered to corporate and group clients.

Plan your visit