One of Northern Ireland’s greatest museums is getting a £50 million revamp

Are you a lover of living museums? We’re talking about the kinds of places where actors dress up in clothes from the olden days and transport visitors back to the good old days of yore. One of the UK’s arguably best museums of this kind is the Ulster Folk Museum in Northern Ireland, and it’s about to get even better thanks to a mega £50 million investment. 

Gordon Lyons, the Communities Minister for Northern Ireland, has announced that the Ulster Folk Museum will receive an investment of £40 million from the government and a further £10 million from the National Lottery. The cash injection comes as National Museums NI deemed that some of the Ulster Folk Museum’s facilities are ‘no longer fit for purpose’ due to a lack of investment in recent decades. Exact details of how the money will be spent are still to be revealed. 

‘For more than 60 years, the Ulster Folk Museum has preserved, shared and celebrated the traditions, skills and ways of life of the people of Ulster, past and present, and this investment is vital to ensure our heritage is retained for future generations,’ said Lyons.

The Ulster Folk Museum is operated by the same people who run the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh, which Time Out named one of the best places to visit in the UK in 2026. While the folk museum tells of skills, customs and traditions that were passed down over many generations in Ulster, the American folk park is a living museum that explores the lives of those who emigrated to North America from Ulster in the 18th and 19th centuries. Both museums are well worth a visit. 

Kathryn Thomson, chief executive of National Museums NI, said: ‘The Ulster Folk Museum’s collection is a people’s collection. It has never been more relevant to our lives than today.

‘These objects and stories reflect shared experiences and different traditions from across Ulster and help people better understand who we all are.’

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