Benburb Priory Library and Museum is an exciting interactive and engaging visitor centre in a restored Victorian Stables, tucked away in the heart of Ulster.
We conserve, and make accessible, a uniquely valuable collection of books, archives, and artefacts. The library and museum are a welcoming hub for the entire Benburb Priory estate, a place where visitors can make an enjoyable and relaxing visit.
If you are interested in a tour of our library and museum, please contact us. We cater to individuals and groups.
Email: info@benburbpriory.com
Telephone: 028 3754 8241
Mission Statement
“To preserve, protect and enhance the historical materials in the collections of the Library & Museum and make them readily accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds; to increase public awareness of the heritage represented in the collections through relevant exhibitions, lectures, seminars and educational programmes; and to advance the Library & Museum’s standing as a major centre for intellectual activity and community leadership and involvement within the overall ethos and values of the Benburb (Servite) Priory”.
The Library & Museum’s mission centres on and emanates from its major collections relating to:
- The heritage of monasticism, including the Servite Order; its book collections going back to the 1500s and related artefacts encompassing the rare and valuable Servite and Marian collections and their journeys to Benburb.
- The history of the Servites in England and Ireland through archives covering over 150 years.
- The O’Neill Collection, including annals relating to the O’Neill dynasty, the Wingfield/Powerscourt (now the Priory) estate and other local history from pre-Plantation to the present time.
- Literary and cultural treasures from Irish and world history, including a rare copy of the Book of Kells, an early translation of the Bible into Irish, a King James Bible from the 1600s, a resplendent cope from the French Revolution, and poems from Seamus Heaney unique to the Servite’s Everyman/Aquarius magazines.
The ‘open and interactive Library & Museum’ will promote this heritage locally, nationally, and internationally.
Did you know?
- The library and archive collection at the Servite Priory Benburb is unique within Ireland and Great Britain.
- Our collection is extensive (approx. 20,000 volumes) and includes several valuable collections, the Servite collection, the Marian collection, and the O’Neill collection as well as extensive archival material and artefacts.
- We house a large collection of general religious and theological books and periodicals and a collection of Irish literature.
- The development of the Benburb Priory Library and Museum is bringing together and presenting a number of strands of heritage which are unique to Benburb and the Priory estate.
