Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio

Over het museum

The museum is housed in Martello Tower North no. 2 in Howth, one of a chain of coastal lookout towers built around 1805 to guard against a feared Napoleonic invasion. The tower stands on the site of an earlier motte, and it has links to the history of wireless: the inventors Guglielmo Marconi and Lee de Forest are recorded as having carried out radio experiments there in 1903 and 1905.

The museum opened in 2003, when the collector Pat Herbert, who had been gathering radios and other communications equipment since the 1950s, was offered the refurbished tower by Fingal County Council. He and a team of volunteers ran it as a non-commercial labour of love. Its name comes from a remark by the former Taoiseach Seán Lemass, who once called the radio service the old hurdy-gurdy after hearing the Radio Éireann orchestra tuning up.

Pat Herbert died in June 2020, and his family and volunteers have kept the museum going. His private collection was sold at auction in 2022, but the objects displayed in the tower remain. The exhibits include early Morse equipment, crystal sets, valve radios, gramophones, telephones, telegrams, stamps and an amateur radio station, call sign EI0MAR, which operates from the tower.

Hoogtepunten

• Crystal sets, valve radios and gramophones
• Early Morse and telegraph equipment
• Amateur radio station EI0MAR in the tower
• Martello tower linked to the wireless experiments of Marconi and de Forest
• Guided tours by volunteers

Opgericht

2003

Toegangsprijzen & kortingen

Tickets should be booked in advance on the museum's online booking page.

Toegankelijkheid

Het museum heeft hierover geen informatie gepubliceerd.

Kinderen & gezin

Children go free.

Bereikbaarheid & parkeren

The entrance is opposite the Abbey Tavern in Abbey Street, Howth, along a path beside the Howth Music School; the tower is at the top of the path.

Service & horeca

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Evenementen & zaalverhuur

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