Scholarly addition to folk farm
The project imitates a rural townland and is in the heart of Killarney National Park alongside the Victorian period mansion Muckross House.
It now attracts 700,000 visitors a year, almost as many as the big house.
And, as with Muckross House, the traditional farms are jointly managed by a group of trustees along with the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
The two-roomed schoolhouse is the final phase of the Traditional Farms project which first opened in 1993.
Employing traditional farm methods as well as crafts, the farm’s houses are a replica of houses in the townland of Barleymount, Killarney, before electricity arrived, while the schoolhouse is a scaled-up version of that area’s local school former two-roomed Fossa National School.
The old St John’s Cashlagh National School near Caherciveen, a building almost identical to the old Fossa National School, was used for surveying purposes.
The new facility, it is hoped, will extend the tourist season and also act as a concert hall, an exhibition centre, a meeting hall and, most importantly, a facility which will allow Muckross Traditional Farms to expand its outreach and educational programmes such as Féile Chúiltuir Chiarrai, according to a spokeswoman.
Arts Minister Jimmy Deenihan performed the sod turning on the project, for which funding is being provided by the trustees.
