The Steam Museum, Steam museum in Straffan, County Kildare, Ireland

The Steam Museum stands in Straffan, County Kildare, in a church building moved from beside the Inchicore railway works in Dublin and rebuilt on the Lodge Park site, which has an 18th-century walled garden. Inside are prototype model locomotives, live steam engines and industrial beam engines, including one from the old Midleton Whiskey Distillery.

The museum was founded in 1988 by Robert C Guinness and houses a Victorian Gothic building relocated from the Inchicore Railway works. These workshops were once where railway engineers designed and maintained their machines.

The museum displays items from the first transatlantic telegraph cable connection between Valencia Island and Newfoundland, telling the story of when people first linked continents through underwater cables.

Visitors can watch stationary engines in operation and join guided tours through the mechanical exhibits on specific days during the season. Wearing comfortable shoes is helpful since you will spend considerable time walking through the workshop areas.

The museum's church building was moved from its original site beside the Inchicore railway works in Dublin and rebuilt at Straffan. Two of the locomotives on display were used by the Great Northern Railway in the late 19th century.