National Transport Museum of Ireland, Transport heritage museum in Howth, Ireland

The National Transport Museum of Ireland occupies former farm buildings in the Heritage Depot of Howth Castle, entered through the castle's main gates. Sixty of its more than 180 vehicles are on display, the oldest from the second half of the 19th century and the newest from 1984: buses, lorries, trucks, fire engines, trams and tractors. The restored Hill of Howth No.9 tram is among them.

The project began in the 1940s as an effort by the Transport Museum Society of Ireland to save Dublin's historic trams. It was restructured in the early 1970s, and the society ran the Castleruddery Transport Museum in County Wicklow from 1974 to 1985. The collection moved to former farm buildings at Howth Castle in 1986, where it opened as the National Transport Museum of Ireland.

The museum is run by volunteers of the Transport Museum Society of Ireland and funded by an entry fee, poster sales and donations. The Hill of Howth No.9 tram, restored to working order, recalls the Hill of Howth Tramway near Dublin. Vehicles are kept in former farm buildings reached through the main gates of Howth Castle.

The buildings are spacious enough to walk around comfortably among the many vehicles, but there are few places to sit and rest. Plan to spend several hours here, and bring a jacket as the spaces are only partially covered overhead.

The Hill of Howth No.9 tram is the only vehicle named in the museum's own accounts, kept in the Heritage Depot among former farm buildings reached through Howth Castle's main gates. Sixty of the collection's more than 180 vehicles are on show in Howth; the rest, including those at a reserve depot at Castleruddery near Donoughmore in County Wicklow, can be inspected by prior arrangement.