Polished Stone Axe
The polished stone axe is one of the most well know objects from the Neolithic period (c.4500-2500BC) when it was necessary to devise a tool to clear the forest of trees so that crops could be planted and animals enclosed within fields. There has always been a great antiquarian interest in coll...

Potty about Pots
The Museum has a very good collection of prehistoric pots. The ability to 'fire' clay and make a pot was a skill first learned in the Neolithic period (about 4000BC).  These were made from coils of clay rather than using a potter's wheel.  As well as using pots for cooking, they were of...

Railway disaster
On 12th June1889, 89 people died and hundreds were injured in Ireland’s worst railway disaster (get closer by clicking the images). That morning almost 1200 people crammed into 13 carriages at Armagh Station - about 400 more passengers than expected. At 10.15am, the train departed for ...

Scold's Bridle
Gossiping women meet their match!A bizarre form of punishment reserved exclusively for women was the wearing of the iron scold's bridle. Resembling a muzzle or cage for the head it had a padlock at the rear and a projecting spike that would have been held firmly inside the mouth when the bridle w...

Strange bronze
Is it a hand grenade?One of the most unusual objects on display is often mistaken for a hand grenade. It is in fact not a weapon but possibly a musical percussion instrument.Known as a 'crotal', most of these objects were all found in one hoard from Dowris in Co Offaly (dating to around 800BC). T...

The Hour Glass
Before the advent of clocks, among the devices used to figure out time was the hourglass which is illustrated as early as 1338. They became an important part of a ship's navigation equipment and a way to tell the time as the hours would be counted after noon when the sun was at its highest. I...

The Kingfisher
The Kingfisher is one of our most colourful and dramatic looking birds. While they can be seen in rivers and lakes in Northern Ireland, their low rapid flight often results in a blur of iridescent blue as they flash by. As the name suggests, they hunt mainly for fish from riverside perches or o...

The Squirrel
The red squirrel is an increasingly rare sight in Northern Ireland whereas the grey squirrel (introduced in 1911, Co Longford) is very common and can be seen in and around the trees on the Mall opposite the Museum. The grey squirrel out-competes the red for food and has a more varied diet which...

The Vikings
“The Vikings are coming, the Vikings are coming!!!”Just imagine the panic on that day in 832 AD, when the Vikings launched their first hit-and-run raid on the great monastery at Armagh. The monastery was an easy target, standing proudly on the hill now occupied by the Church of ...

Victorian Dress
There are an array of ladies clothes, including wedding dresses, frocks and evening gowns, many dating from the Victorian period. These are accompanied by accessories including fans and purses.