The Museum collects, preserves, and shows items from the beginning of County Down’s history to the current day. Their aim is to enhance public awareness of the county’s history, culture, and the environment by hosting informative, accessible, and relevant exhibitions, activities, and events for the local community and tourists.
The Museum is situated in the historic County Gaol of Down buildings, which date back to the seventeenth century. The Gaol, which opened in 1796 and closed in 1830, held hundreds of inmates.
The Gaol held insurgents captured during the battles of Saintfield and Ballynahinch in 1798, as well as Thomas Russell, a United Irishman executed for his involvement in the attempted rebellion of 1803.
The Jail was also a punitive gaol, and hundreds of convicts were held here before being transferred to the convict colonies of New South Wales. In our online convict database, you may seek up information on these individuals. This information is available here.
Visitors can now see the conditions in which the prisoners were held, visit restored cells with displays on individual prisoners, and stroll through the Gaol courtyards, which are likely to be the site of lively events and re-enactments, as the Museum has been restoring the Gaol buildings since 1981.
A permanent display in the Museum, Down Through Time, shows 9000 years of human history in County Down.
Temporary shows range from the Victorians to current artists and are rotated on a regular basis.
The Down County Museum logo is based on a coin minted in Downpatrick in 1190 by John de Courcy. It features the name Patrick with a crozier on one side and the name de Courcy on the other. It was a statement of independence by de Courcy since it did not bear the head of Prince John, Lord of Ireland, and it was a symbolic link between the area’s religious and political affiliations.
