Dark History Guided Tours on offer in Waterford Plus After Dark Tours in The Irish Wake Museum this Halloween
The season of Samhain will be alive in Waterford this Halloween as the award winning guides from Waterford Treasures Museums will be offering a guided experience through the dark history of Ireland’s oldest City plus there will be After Dark tours available at the recently opened Irish Wake Museum.
During the 90 minute fully guided Dark History Tour visitors will be taken through the centuries, to explore the murky underbelly of Ireland’s oldest city. Vampires, ghosts, murderers and poor creatures from Waterford’s past will make an appearance on this special limited edition tour experience. From the home of the Waterford Treasures museums in the Viking Triangle to the top of the town in Ballybricken square, the city is filled with stories just dying to get out.
The Dark History Tours will take place on the 23rd, 25th and 27th of October at 7pm, and are suitable for those aged 16 and over and tickets are now available to book at www.waterfordtreasures.com at €15pp.
Also on offer this Hallowe’en is a special After Dark Tour of the recently-opened Irish Wake Museum in Ireland’s oldest urban domestic building, now lovingly restored. It is when the shadows lengthen and the busy daytime life of the Viking Triangle goes quiet that you can hear the ghosts of the former occupants whisper round these parts – people such as Dean John Collyn and his friend Mayor James Rice founders of the Alms House or Mary Susannah Roberts wife of John Roberts who lived here with their growing family in the 1700s.
The Irish Wake Museum traces the customs, traditions and superstitions associated with death in Ireland from the earliest times to the 20th century. The Wake Museum is situated at the Dead Centre of Waterford – the former graveyard of Christ Church Cathedral – established as an Alms House, a Retirement Home for old people, called ‘God’s People’s House’ founded in 1478 on All Souls Day, November 2nd , the Day of the Dead. The occupants of the former Alms House paid for their keep by praying three times a night for the souls of its patrons and the souls of the deceased citizens of Waterford.
The tour transports you back to those beginnings and visitors will experience storytelling through six rooms chronologically from the 15th to the 20th centuries, with different themes associated with death being explored. So take an After Dark tour .. if you dare.
The Irish Wake Museum offers visitors a rare opportunity to explore one of the most iconic parts of Irish culture, through the eyes of an expert at night this Halloween on their After Dark Tour series from October 30th to November 3rd at 5pm, 6pm and 7pm. This experience is for those aged 14 and over and tickets are €11pp at www.waterfordtreasures.com
