This charming 19th-century forge offers a rare glimpse into the traditional blacksmith’s craft in rural Ireland. Housed in a picturesque thatched cottage, the interior remains remarkably intact with all the essential tools of the blacksmith’s trade still in place. Visitors can see the hearth where metal was heated, the leather bellows used to intensify the fire, the sturdy anvil for shaping hot metal, and an impressive collection of specialised hand tools that would have been used daily.

Perhaps the most intriguing feature lies just outside the cottage to the south – a large circular limestone with peculiar perforations and two grooves worn into its surface. According to local knowledge, this stone served a specific purpose in the wheel-making process. It was used for ‘shoeing’ wheels, the practice of fitting metal tyres to wooden cart wheels, an essential service for local farmers and cart owners in the days before rubber tyres.